


So You Wanna Spin the World Around

by Profitina



Series: Handprint Kinksters [29]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic Violence, F/M, Forensics, Graphic Description of Corpses, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Murder Mystery, One Night Stands, Oral Sex, Semi-Public Sex, Serial Killers, Sex, Unresolved Sexual Tension, murder investigation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:20:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 28,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24400459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Profitina/pseuds/Profitina
Summary: Max is a detective investigating the increasing murders in Roswell, NM when he runs in to the woman he recently had a one night stand with, Liz. And she is the forensic scientist he is partnering with to investigate the cases. Song title by Gomez.
Relationships: Max Evans/Liz Ortecho
Series: Handprint Kinksters [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1731475
Comments: 41
Kudos: 39





	1. The Morning After

When Max woke up in his hotel room in Denver, his head was pounding. He was in town to represent Roswell PD in a nationwide police convention being held that year in Denver. The last time he had a hangover like this, he had just turned 21. He was always so careful not to end up intoxicated like that again. 

He cracked open one eye and flinched as sunlight streaming through the glass patio door hit his eyes. He drags his hand down his face and freezes. His hand smells like sex. He glances to the other side of the bed and notices the sheets are rumpled like someone slept there. Grumbling from his headache and disorientation, he rolls towards the other side of the bed and smells the distinct smell of desert rose. Liz. The name pops in his head, as well as an image of a beautiful latina woman. Maybe she is in the bathroom. Max normally wasn’t one to bring home strange women, especially while at a work function. 

He searches his mind to start to put the pieces together. After having way too many drinks in order to continue talking to the intelligent and attractive woman, Max invited her upstairs to his hotel room. She had been at the convention too. Maybe she was also an officer. 

He throws the covers back and sits up. As he sits up, he is hit with a wave of nausea and covers his mouth briefly until the nausea passes. He’s naked. He never sleeps naked. Usually, he sleeps in a t-shirt and boxer briefs. He locates his boxers on the floor next to the bed and pulls them on to search for Liz. He gets to the bathroom door when a note on hotel stationary stuck into the wood molding catches his eye. Pulling it from the molding, he reads:

Thank you for distracting me from my problems last night. And this morning ;).  
XO,  
Liz

Max flips the note over hoping to find a number left behind, but it is blank. If he had brought her upstairs while at a convention, she had to be someone extraordinary. And then he notices a bright red scrap of satiny fabric hanging from the bathroom door knob. He pulls it off the handle and untangles it, realizing it is a pair of underwear. It was a thong, to be precise. Apparently, someone had yanked it straight off as it was ruined. 

This was why he doesn’t drink excessively. Or bring strange women home. Because now he felt guilty and embarrassed that last night's sexathon only warranted a note goodbye. Clearly, the woman didn’t want a repeat performance. 

________________

A month later, Liz looked at herself in the mirror one last time in her childhood bedroom above her family’s restaurant, The Crashdown, as she stepped into her heels. Coming down the stairs, her father raised an eyebrow at her outfit. She’s wearing a short- but not too short- burgundy dress with cap sleeves and black heels with simple hoop earrings. 

“Mija, isn’t that too sexy for work?” her father wrinkled his brow in concern. 

“It’s just a dress, papi. A completely work appropriate one.” Liz scolds him for babying her. She is a grown ass woman and one of the top forensic scientists in the country. Liz is a young, attractive woman and she understands why her father doesn’t like the idea of men looking at her but she can wear whatever she pleases and the dress is really completely appropriate. She is in town to help the Roswell Police Department run and analyze some tests on some evidence found on a few murder victims. She kisses his cheek and wipes away the red lipstick stain. “I’ll try to be home for dinner.”

On the drive to the police department, Liz thinks about how she wishes she was less like her mother. It is one thing to look like her but she also had far too many of her mother’s less favorable qualities and propensity for poor life choices. She’s been aimless since her sister passed away at the much too young age of 19, bouncing from place to place and man to man. The only thing consistent about Liz’s life was her love for her father and her strive for perfection in the lab. 

Walking into the Roswell Police department, Liz gasps. Standing there in full uniform with a cowboy hat is the man who rocked her world in Denver, Max. He is tall and clean shaven and so sexy in his uniform. Liz takes a deep breath and wills herself to be professional.

Max almost drops the folder he is holding when she walks in but catches it before it falls. He traces the dip of her waist and curves with his eyes, skimming down to the hem of her dress and where it hits just above her knee. Her calves are toned and tan and she is wearing sensible black heels. She looks classy, yet sexy. Her hair is pulled up into a tight bun and Max briefly considers undoing her updo so that he can see her wavy hair fall free. 

Tipping his hat in greeting, Max holds his hand out to her. “Detective Max Evans. How can I help you, Liz?”


	2. Chapter 2

You have got to be kidding me, Liz thinks. She flushes and looks around disoriented. Licking her lips nervously, which Max follows with his eyes fascinated, Liz takes his hand. “Hello, Max. I didn’t know you were a detective here.”

Her mouth suddenly feels dry and her nipples harden as she is flooded with memories from their night together. He is such a sweet, respectful man. Until you get his clothes off and it becomes a completely different story- one she would love to visit again.  
“Is that a problem?” Max’s chocolate brown eyes search her lighter ones like they hold the secret to the universe. His dark bangs hang boyishly over his forehead from the angle he has to look down at her because she is so much shorter than he is. 

Liz shakes her head in answer and gently slips her hand from his. “I’m here to see Sheriff Valenti. She’s pairing me with a detective to work on a case.” 

Max eyes her speculatively then jumps when he hears his superior's voice cut through their conversation. “Detective Evans! Stop boxing the forensic scientist in so she can come join us in the conference room.”

Michele Valenti became the sheriff of Roswell in the election after her husband passed away. She is a short latino woman who worked her way up the ranks and expects no nonsense. Her voice booms and is assertive, largely to ensure that no one questions her size or authority. She is clearly the one calling the shots in this precinct. 

“Did you bring your crime scene analysis for those four Jane Doe’s to discuss and see if they were related?” The sheriff asks Liz, looking at the folders Liz is holding.

“Of course- with a few extra copies for the meeting. I also ran the DNA and are ready to discuss the results.” Liz follows the sheriff to the conference room confidently with her shoulders back while Max follows closely behind them, trying and failing not to check out Liz’s ass.

“This is Detective Evans. He will be the detective you are paired with to work on this case.” The sheriff gestures back towards Max.

Liz wills herself not to react to that news as if it is a shock to her, and nods in agreement. This will not be awkward at all, considering she has already seen him naked in all sorts of positions. “Of course. We just met in the lobby.”

They enter a conference room with a handful of officers already seated. Max sits down in the front row next to the wall and the sheriff sits in the middle in the back to oversee the meeting. Handing out the folders of preemptive tests she ran on the cases that were sent to her, Liz makes eye contact with Max as she hands him his folder and gasps out a breath when their fingers brush and electricity shoots straight to her clit. 

His lips part and tongue peaks out to lick his lips as if he feels something too. Liz can remember vividly how it felt to have that tongue circling her bare nipple, among other places, during their night together and is entranced. A sound- part groan and part sigh- escapes her lips watching his tongue. 

Max’s eyes widen and his cheeks flush at the sound. She’s still holding the folder and he discreetly tries to pull it from her grip on it. It only takes a couple seconds but Liz is convinced that if the sheriff could read their thoughts, they would be fired on the spot. His deep baritone voice feels like a caress across her clit when he rumbles out a quiet thank you to her. Maybe she should request a different officer? But what would she say? I’m sorry, I can’t work with this officer because I am intimately acquainted with his cock? Not a good career move. 

As she goes to move on to the next officer to pass out the rest of the folders, Max’s fingers wrap around her wrist and slide something small into her hand. “Hold on. You dropped something.” 

He can quite clearly remember being on his knees between her legs and the way she tasted. Based on the way she is shifting nervously and the flush in her cheeks, she can too. She left without leaving him her contact information and he needs to talk to her as soon as possible about that night to make working together less awkward. Some closure would also be nice. He has been worried that he did something wrong since that night to not deserve a goodbye. On his end, it was the best sex of his life and she seemed to enjoy it, so why did she leave?

Liz almost drops her folders at his contact against her bare skin and he discreetly hands her a folded piece of paper. She mutters thank you and his fingers slide away from her wrist. There’s no way she dropped anything since Liz is still holding all of her folders. Liz gives him a strained smile before moving on to the next officer and handing him his folder. She passes out the rest of her folders and then goes to the front of the room.

“As you can see from the autopsy done on Jane Doe #1, the victim died of strangulation by some sort of ligature. Semen was found and DNA tested- more on that in a little bit. The victim was 18 years old and latina.” Liz confidently states her findings. “Next page, we have Jane Doe #2, a mid 20s woman listed as a transient. She also died of strangulation with a ligature and had a semen sample to be DNA tested.”

Taking a deep breath for the next part, as it greatly frustrated her, Liz continued. “On the next page, we have Jane Doe #3. As you can see, she also died of strangulation with a ligature and was also a mid 20s latina. However, the DNA sample you gave me came back as having three different people’s DNA present in it- the victim, an unknown male and an unknown female. Usually this means that the sample was contaminated and the evidence would not hold up in court. In the future, I need to be the one to take samples to ensure it is done in a way that isn’t cross contaminated with the officers like Jane Doe #3. I would be happy to teach all of your officers to collect a proper usable sample, Sheriff, so that we do not lose DNA in the future. And if at all possible, I need access to that body to get another sample.”

To Max’s left, an officer scoffs and rolls his eyes. He is pretty positive that is the officer that found Jane Doe #3’s body and took the contaminated sample. When he mutters something about not needing to be told how to do his job, Max discreetly kicks him under the table. “So sorry.” Max whispers, although he definitely did it on purpose.

“Jane Doe #3 was cremated a month ago, unfortunately. We will have to make due with the sample we have. And what of Jane Doe #4?” Sheriff Valenti steepled her hands under her chin, watching Liz speculatively.

“On the 4th page, we have Jane Doe #4. She was an african american female in her early 20s and died of strangulation with a ligature. Her DNA was able to be tested. Interestingly, all four victims’ samples contained DNA from the same unknown male perpetrator. I need to have a detective run that DNA profile through CODUS to see if there is a match to a known felon in the system. And I need to cross reference the missing person’s reports around this time period to the victim profiles to see if we can ID some of these women and notify their families.”

“I’ll get right on that, Ms. Ortecho. I’ll move that to the top of my todo list.” Max gives her one of those half smiles that pops his dimple and tips his hat slightly at her. 

Liz pauses for a moment and flushes before coming back to herself. “And most importantly, there appears to be enough evidence to suggest that all four cases might be linked. We might be dealing with a serial killer here.”

___________________

Entering the bathroom after her presentation, Liz unfolds the piece of paper Max gave her. It simply says “We need to talk” in his neat scrawl along with his phone number. She sighed and slipped it into her purse to deal with later. After doing her business and washing her hands, she jumps when she exits the bathroom to see Max standing there. 

“I was just going to put that sample into CODUS. You want to be sure I do it to your standards?” He teased her. 

“Sure. But Detective Evans, you’ve never had trouble doing anything to my standards.” As soon as she said it, Liz covered her ruby painted mouth. “Oh my god. I can’t believe I said that. That never happened.”

Max chuckled at her slip and winked conspiratorially. “I didn’t hear a thing. Follow me, my office is this way.”

Liz follows him closely to his office and wills herself not to check out his bubble butt as he walks slightly bow legged to his office. Max playfully covers his keyboard while he enters his password to hide it from her. Then he pulls up the CODUS database and asks Liz to read the numbers on the DNA samples to him to cross check with felons in the database to try to find the perpetrator. The computer soon bings with no results found. 

“Try searching for relatives of the sample.” Liz suggests, leaning over his shoulder to look at the screen. Max feels like he is surrounded by her desert rose scent and briefly blanks out on what he was doing. Taking his hand on the mouse when he doesn’t move fast enough, Liz moves the cursor to the part of the screen to check to also check for relatives. “The square is kind of hidden if you haven’t used it before.” She explains, before flushing realizing her hand is still over his and quickly moving it back to her side.

“No results detected.” Max reads on the screen. “Huh. So the perpetrator’s DNA was found on all four samples but is not someone yet known to the system. We have our work cut out for us.”

“We will catch him.” Liz reassures him. 

“We have to before he kills again. Ok, so lets try the Jane Doe’s to see if we can find a match in the system. Read Jane Doe #1’s barcode number for me?” Max waits for her to start reading the long number out with his fingers poised over the keyboard and types as she reads it to him. 

They do this for all of the Jane Doe’s and manage to identify Jane Doe #3 as a mentally ill woman who was in and out of jail just before her death. Sighing, Max tousles his hair in frustration. “Ok, if I pull the missing person’s reports for the last three years to try to match the characteristics with any of the victims, will you help me sort through them? It’s going to be binders full of people.” 

“Ok. And we can cross check anyone we flag to see if we agree.” Liz suggests, flopping in the chair across from his desk while she waits for him to go pull the files they need to go through.

“And then, I’m taking you to dinner. We have a lot to talk about and we will both be starving by then.” Max adds, popping his head back in his office. When Liz opens her mouth to suggest that going to dinner alone maybe isn’t the best idea, he holds up his hand. “On me. Don’t argue.”

Max returns with six binders full of missing person reports. If any of the characteristics match a victim, they will then need to find a family member to test for DNA to match them to the victim and positively ID the victim. After hours of flagging missing person’s reports of early 20s women, it is 6pm and technically time to clock out. 

“I’m going to stay and finish these. We only have two binders left.” Liz tells him, picking up another 3” binder full of papers to sort through. 

“I’ll stay with you to finish up. We can order take out while we work. Do you like chinese food?” Max sits down on the floor leaning against the wall closest to Liz with the last binder. All of the previous binders have dozens of little flagged pages in each of them. Identifying the victims will be a lot of work and this is just the beginning. Max grabs one of the neon pink sticky flags Liz brought and puts it on the report he is reading because the report is about a latina in her early 20s. 

“Of course I eat chinese food. What kind of soulless person doesn’t?” Liz laughs, flipping the page she was reading. “Oooh do they have extra spicy orange beef? I could go for that.”

“I’ll make sure to find a place that has what you want.” Max assures her. “We work well together.” He looks up at her shyly through his bangs sitting on the floor by her feet. 

“We do.” Liz agrees, smiling warmly at him. 

When her stomach growls loudly, Max laughs. “Ok, ok, I’m calling. Your food will be here soon. I got sweet and sour soup and orange chicken. I’ll share if you want to try it.”


	3. Chapter 3

At dawn, Max is woken up when the sunlight streams through the blinds of the window in his office. He is still sitting on the floor but his head is being supported by him leaning against his crossed arms in the chair next to the one Liz is in. She has a binder in her lap and at some point curled up with her long legs dangling over the arm of her chair. Her burgundy dress has ridden up scandalously high exposing way more skin than she probably means to. Max briefly wonders what type of panties she is wearing. Her dress has almost ridden up high enough for him to tell. Her long black hair is cascading back across the chair Max is leaning against so that it is in his face. They have Chinese takeout strewn about that area of the office and binders with hot pink sticky notes stuck in them. 

Their shift doesn’t start for 3hrs so Max wipes the drool from his mouth and gently shakes Liz once. “Liz! Hey, we fell asleep.” He whispers, running his hand down her arm gently to wake her. Her tan skin is so soft and goosebumps erupt under his fingers. He definitely has a morning wood situation going on and her hair hanging so close to his face that he can smell it doesn’t help things. 

Liz looks around trying to place where she is and then sees Max. “Oh no. Did we…?” She swings her legs around to sit properly in the chair and smooths her skirt down from where it has risen up. She doesn’t feel sore like that is how she spent the night but here they are together again. She is feeling deja vu. The binder in her lap slides off and hits the floor and she realizes they fell asleep going through case reports.

“No. No.” Max holds his hands up at the idea. “We were working on those reports and must have fallen asleep. Do you want some coffee? I’m going to go make some.”

Max discreetly shifts his erection, avoiding her eyes and smoothes out his messy hair before going in search of coffee. Liz must have fallen back asleep while he was gone because she wakes up to him standing in between her thighs calling her name. She can vividly remember what it was like to have him in between her thighs, one hand cupping her ass to tilt her hips up so he could lick and nibble at her better while the other played with her nipple. More than once. Max Evans is a very giving man. 

Flushing red at her thoughts, she whispers thanks and takes the cup of coffee he brought her. 

“Cream? Sugar? I can go get you whatever you need.” Their eyes lock and a weird sizzling energy passes between them. Max clears his throat trying to get his bearings back. He’s going to have to figure out how to work with this woman without constantly thinking about what she felt like underneath him or he is going to go crazy. Or get fired.

“One cream, one sugar please.” Liz smiles at him in thanks, taking the lid off her coffee so that it will cool enough for her to drink faster.

Coming back with the cream and sugar, he hands it to her then sits in the chair next to her. “I’ll distract the front desk officer so you can leave without people knowing you slept here and get changed at home when you’re ready.”

Liz sets her coffee on the floor, bends over, and fluffs her hair, shaking the long dark strands. Max’s mouth goes dry at the sight and he isn’t quite sure where she is going with this but he doesn’t mind watching it. Finger combing her hair, Liz smiles up at him. “How bad is it? Is my eyeliner all smeared and hair wild still or do I look ok?”

“Uh…” Max is at a loss of words and still hypnotized by her hair, with his mouth hanging slightly open.

Taking his silence to mean that she looks like a tramp, Liz bites her lip and paces cursing in spanish. “Do you have a mirror anywhere? I can’t leave from the first day at my job looking like I was banged six ways from Sunday.”

“I...what?” Max swears he swallows his own tongue. He does his best not to imagine him doing just that. “You look beautiful. I swear. No mirror needed.”

Liz eyes him like she doesn’t believe him then shrugs. “Alright, Detective. Get me out the front door.” Popping the lid back on her cup of coffee, Liz waits for Max to make a move. 

“See you in a couple hours.” Max plops his white cowboy hat on his head and at her nod, heads to the front desk. “Hank! What’s new man? I fell asleep in my office again.”

Hank chuckles and Max angles his body so that it is hiding Liz as she tiptoes past behind him. “Hard to do the walk of shame when you wear the same thing every day, eh Evans?”

Max laughs raucously at his joke, seeing Liz quietly open the front door behind him. When the door dings, Hank’s brow furrows. “That thing has been acting weird. We should get it checked.”

“Or maybe the precinct is haunted” Max jokes then remembers that Hank is very much a believer in ghosts when his face falls.

“Why would you say something like that, man? You know I’m scared of spooks. And I work alone at nights” Hank frets, looking around for a logical culprit. 

“Sorry, dude. I forgot.” Max smiles at him sheepishly. “I’m gonna go home and get cleaned up for the day and some coffee that doesn’t suck. See you later.”

—————————-

Liz tiptoes up the stairs, carrying her heels from work hoping not to run into her overprotective father. She has nothing to be ashamed of, but he will worry she was out doing sinful things with a man. 

“Elizabeth, I never heard you come in last night.” Arturo crosses his arms over his chest and watches his daughter suspiciously. She has only been in town for less than a week. Surely she hasn’t found a boyfriend already.

“Papi, I fell asleep working on a case at work. Besides, I am almost 30. I’ll stay out all night if I want to.” Liz sticks her tongue out at her father, continuing up the stairs to get ready for the day.

Plopping on her childhood bed after locking her bedroom door, Liz sighs. She has a slight crick in her neck from sleeping upside down in an office chair with no neck support. Being around Max alone was a dangerous move- one she was going to have to get used to. Why did he always smell so good? Like rain and musk. 

She tiptoes her fingers down her navel to undo her skirt and get herself off thinking about the way Max looked at her like she was everything. Just this once, to get it out of her system. Then she will never think of him like that again. Nothing but professionalism with Detective Evans from here forward, she promises herself.

—————————-

Max washes his hands after jacking off thinking about his new partner. He was allowing himself to do it just this once, because thinking about her hair and long legs hanging over his office chair had him rock hard. Then he started remembering their night together and the next thing he knew, he was pumping his erection to the rhythm of his thrusts in his memories. This would be the last time he touched himself thinking of Liz Ortecho. Really.

—————————-

That day after noon, the precinct receives a call about a body found in the desert. 

“Evans! We’ve got a code blue.” Sheriff Valenti calls out to him from the front office. “Don’t forget to take Ms.Ortecho with you so the evidence isn’t contaminated.”

“Yes, maam. Ms. Uh, Ortecho, grab what you need for your tests and I’ll meet you in the SUV.” Max grabs his keys off his desk and heads for his department issued black SUV that was meant to be incognito but had obvious police lights on the hood and mirrors.

Liz collected her red field work duffle bag that proudly proclaimed “Nerds Do It Better” on the side. It had gloves, test samples, and all the tools she would need in it. She was glad she had worn ballet flats and dress pants today if she was going to be walking through the desert sands. 

—————————-

Driving to the spot where the call had come from about finding a body, Max pulls up to a spot with buzzards flying around. “This must be it.” Max unclicks his seatbelt and steps out of his vehicle. Following suit, Liz undoes her seatbelt and opens her door. Coming around the hood of the car, she sees Max bending down to check the body for identification. 

“Wait!” exclaimed Liz. “Don’t touch her until I have taken samples. That’s how you get your DNA on a body.”

Max stands up straight with his hands in the air, waiting for Liz to give him instructions. She’s scary hot when she’s in work mode and it’s easiest to just do what she tells him to do. 

“Before we touch ANYTHING we have to photograph the body and surroundings as we found it. How are you at taking photographs?” Liz taps her lip, sizing up Max.

“Pretty good. I do photography as a hobby sometimes.” Max shrugs.

Liz thrusts her camera into his hands. “We need photos from all angles of the body and the area we found it in. Get to work, partner.”

Liz watches Max take photos from different angles and distances of everything surrounding and on the body. Once she is satisfied with his pictures, she digs through her duffle bag looking for caution tape to mark off the scene. “Hey, Max? Did you bring the tape to mark off the crime scene?”

“Of course I did. It’s in the backseat in my crime box.” 

Liz opens the passenger back door to the police SUV and stands on her tiptoes trying to get to the box. Max watches her ass wiggle as she tries to heave herself into the backseat and smiles. “Need any help?” Max offers. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do and totally not because he wants to place his hands on her hips again.

“Nope! Got it.” Liz drops back down to the ground holding the bright yellow caution tape. Max hands her the camera so she can review the photos he took and trades her for the caution tape. He places it around the body to mark off the crime scene. Once he is done, Liz straps on blue vinyl gloves. “I’m going to take my samples and you call the medical examiner to come collect the body to do the autopsy.”

“On it.” Max assures her, smiling lopsided at her in a way that makes her heart skip. 

Liz ducks under the crime tape with her duffle bag with samples. She bends down next to the body, smiling shyly. “Hi, I’m Liz. I’m going to take some samples so we can find out who did this to you, okay?”

“Are you talking to a dead person, Liz?” Max asks her, amused. 

“Shh!” Liz shakes her head at him, pulling out a tube with a swab. She swabs the neck wound then sticks it in the sterile container to run for DNA later. She also takes samples from under the victim’s nails, palm of her hand, and since she isn’t wearing any pants and the other similar victims were raped, she mutters an apology and takes a sample from her vagina. All the swabs are placed into their own sterile tubes to be tested later. Having taken all the samples she needs, Liz crawls out from under the caution tape with her field kit.

“Oh! Ow.” Liz yelps, as a cramp hits her neck from sleeping crooked when she straightens up outside the caution tape.

“What’s wrong?” Max comes straight over to her in three long strides, concerned. 

“My neck is so tense from sleeping in your chair last night. It’s fine.” Liz explains, messaging her neck awkwardly. She takes off her medical exam gloves and places them in a plastic bag to dispose of later.

Max watches her fingers, entranced. “I’m really good at messages. I could help.” 

“You don’t have to do that.” Liz argues, leaning into her touch as she tries to rub the tension out of her own shoulders.

“Don’t be silly. May I?” Max waits for her to nod then gets to work kneading the tension from her shoulders. Liz moans in appreciation and he makes sure he leans back so she doesn’t figure out that he is rocking a serious erection from the noises she is making. 

“Mmm. You ARE good at that.” Liz leans into his touch, little shocks of electricity shooting through her body at his touch. 

“Feel better?” Max whispers huskily in her ear, sliding his hands back out from under her shirt.

“Uh huh.” Liz is so relaxed that she feels noodly. They both jump apart guiltily when they hear tires approaching. 

“That’s the medical examiner.” Max explains to soothe her. Liz just nods in a daze.


	4. Chapter 4

Max chews on his bottom lip looking at the board of victims in his office. He was looking forward to the day when the victims were all identified and he could replace the photos of their autopsy with a living photo of the victim before closing the cases when they caught the perpetrator. “Ok. So what do we know about the victims?”

Liz comes up beside him to see what he is looking at. “All of the victims died of strangulation with a ligature and were minority women between the ages of 18 and 25ish. But what do they have in common? Why were they chosen?”

“I guess we have to start DNA testing relatives of missing people that match the descriptions of the victims to identify them. Then we can see what they have in common by interviewing the families to try to catch this bastard.”

Liz nods in agreement. “I’ll get a box of swabs and labels then we can start organizing the missing persons reports so it is easier to locate their families.” Liz goes to get her box of samples while Max grabs the first binder. It has several reports flagged in it so it will take them a few days to track down the people that filed the report and go to them to get DNA samples to compare with the unidentified victims DNA.

“Here. Let me sort these by where in Roswell the family members live and whether any are from out of state.” Max starts shuffling the reports and putting them into piles based on which neighborhood and state they live in.

When Liz returns, Max is sorting the second to last binder so Liz picks up the remaining one to pull and sort the reports they flagged as being similar to their victims. They have a couple dozen families to visit to try to find a DNA match all live in New Mexico. Luckily, the three victims with out of state family members all live near El Paso, Tx and can be met with on one trip after Liz and Max interview and collect DNA from the local families. 

“Ok. So we have 18 missing reports from families in Roswell, 5 from Sante Fe, 8 from Albuquerque, 4 from Las Cruces and 3 from El Paso. Let’s start with the ones in Roswell and work our way out. You call the first people and see if they're home, I’ll drive.” Max picks up his keys off his desk with the whimsical alien cowboy keychain.

“What if I want to drive?” Liz pouts, following him in her black slacks and southwestern coral colored blouse. As always at work, her hair is up in a tight no nonsense bun. Max hates those buns. He much prefers her hair loose and wavy, but that is for off duty Liz and not something he gets to see any more. But that one time he saw her like that on their night in Colorado was everything.

Max smirks down at her. “You don’t have a badge so you can’t drive a cop car. You know that. Don’t give me that look.”

Liz grumbles, then goes around to the passenger side of his squad car. She hops a couple times trying to get up into the tall SUV and Max wills himself not to laugh. He asks if she needs help and with a grunt, she hoists herself up. “Nope! I’m picking the music.”

Liz puts on her seatbelt and reaches for the preset station buttons. Max is completely prepared to let her always pick the music, but he loves seeing her feisty side so he can’t help but argue. “No chick stuff.”

“What do you even think chick music is?” Liz puts it on the 90s station and bounces a little as an Nsync song comes on.

“Definitely whatever this is, but I’ll allow it.” Max looks over his shoulder, backing out of his parking spot and heading for the road.

“Ohhh. You’ll allow it. You’re not as tough as you think you are, Max Evans.” Liz looks to the side up at him through her long, black lashes.

“Don’t tell anybody.” He smiles back at her.

—————————-

Just down the street from the precinct, Max pulls into the driveway of the first family who reported a missing person on their list. Liz pulls out her swabs, tubes, gloves and glances over at Max. “You talk, I’ll get the samples. I haven’t ever had to talk to the families before.” Liz worriedly nibbles on her lower lip and Max reaches over and frees it from her teeth without thinking until she sucks in a breath at his fingers on her lips. 

“You’re gonna chew those right off.” Max smiles lopsidedly at her, plopping his cream cowboy hat on his head and opening the door. Liz follows behind him as he goes to the door of the small adobe house to talk to the family. Knocking twice authoritatively, Max and Liz wait for the family member who filed the report to answer the door. 

When the door swings open, Max takes off his hat politely. “Mrs. Powell?”

A short, round, pleasant looking blonde woman answers the door and when she realizes it is an officer, she begins to cry. “Did you find my girl?” She looks around behind them as if her daughter will appear.

“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about. We have found some remains that have similar characteristics to your daughter, but to confirm it, we need to collect DNA from a family member for comparison.” Max tells the woman somberly.

“Whatever you need to find my Erin. How do I give you my DNA?” Mrs. Powell gestures for them to follow her into the living room of her home. It is cluttered but homely, with photos of her family lining the mantle. 

“That is why my partner, Ms. Ortecho, is here. She will collect your DNA. Even if one of the bodies we have discovered is not your daughter, we will have your DNA on file to cross check any other victims we find.” Max assures her.

“Alright, Mrs. Powell. Open wide and I’ll take a swab of your saliva.” Liz pops on her blue vinyl gloves, smiling brightly at the middle aged woman and twisting the top of the tube to remove the swab connected to the lid. After Mrs. Powell opens her mouth, Liz swabs her saliva then puts it in the tube so that it is sterile and can be tested. She sticks a label with Mrs. Lavonna Powell on it onto the tube. “Thank you so much. I’ll run this as soon as possible and I should have results back to you in a few weeks.”

Max shakes the woman’s hand after asking a few questions about the last time Mrs. Powell saw her daughter and Liz follows suit after him. “We will be in touch soon.” Max reassures her, popping his cowboy hat back onto his head and heading for his cruiser closely followed by Liz. “Alright, what address is next on the list?”

“A Mr. Facey down the street.” Liz reads off their list.

Max pulls out of the driveway, waiting on Liz to give him directions since she is his copilot.  
—————————-

After collecting DNA from the Facey family, Max pulls in front of a large stucco house overlooking the mountains. 

“Who lives here?” Liz sorts through her notes looking for which house they are at so she knows which label to grab.

“Me. I forgot my lunch this morning.” Max smiles sheepishly at her. “You want to come in or stay here?”

“And miss seeing where the illustrious Detective Evans lives? No way.” Liz unsnaps her seatbelt and swings open the door to the cruiser following Max into his home. “You don’t lock your doors?”

“No. I know everyone in town and no one would be stupid enough to steal from me.” Max tells her over his shoulder, heading to the kitchen to grab his lunch.

Liz bounces on her heels a couple times, trying to decide if she is just supposed to stand there and wait for him before being drawn to his large wall to wall bookshelves. “I had no idea you were so into Russian moralistic literature, Max.” She teases him, running her finger along the spines of his large first edition book collection. “And Jane Austin too. How feminist of you.”

“You want a drink or anything? Sorry it’s such a mess. I didn't expect to have company today.” Max leans across his kitchen island, smiling at her in a way that makes her heart skip. 

“Just some water. Then we have to call the families we plan on visiting tomorrow to make sure they will be home.” Liz twirls her hair as she looks around his home. Max’s house is done in bachelor colors but clean and so much nicer than she expected. He had clearly put a lot of work and effort into it. She wonders what his bedroom looks like but doesn’t trust herself to go anywhere near Max and a bed.

—————————-

A little over a week later, after collecting DNA from all the families related to missing people in the Roswell area, they drove to Albuquerque to collect DNA from the families that live there related to their cases. The last week had involved tons of driving time together and they had settled into a rhythm. Every day, they show up to work, fight over the radio station, visit one family to collect DNA, have lunch, then visit another family. After work, they either went home or to the Wild Pony for a beer together. Due to the amount of families they had to meet with, Max had rented two adjoining rooms for the two days they would be in town. 

Wheeling Liz’s suitcase and carrying his own after coming back from dinner together, Max follows Liz into her adjoining room to drop off her luggage. “If you need anything, my room is connected to yours and I’m right there. Ok?”

“I’m not afraid to sleep alone” Liz rolls her eyes at his concern. She’s not crawling into his bed with them working so closely together and she can figure out how to work the tv by herself.

“Regardless, if you need something, I’m there.” Max smiles warmly at her then leaves to get settled in his own room. He wasn’t insinuating that she should come sleep with him, but last time they had been in a hotel together she had and that would haunt him while he was trying to fall asleep that night.

Liz doesn’t bother unpacking her suitcase because they will only be there one night. Instead, she showers, changes into her pink satin nightgown and falls asleep watching a cooking show. Sometime in the middle of the night, she bolts awake with a gasp as thunder shakes her room. Initially, she is unable to place where she is and is confused- and terrified. Liz has never been a fan of thunderstorms and this is a loud one.

When the wind picks up and starts moving the patio furniture on the balcony, Liz starts trembling. Without thinking too much about it, she pads to the adjoining door and opens it. “Max?” She whispers into the dark.

She is answered with a loud snore. He is sleeping straight through the storm. She crawls into the other side of his bed and her shivers finally subside. She feels safer with him here and will just hang out in his room until the storm passes. She knows he won’t mind. At some point, she drifts to sleep facing Max as the storm rolls on outside.

Max wakes up in the morning with long wavy hair covering his face and what distinctly feels like a woman on his chest. Opening one eye, he is confused to see Liz sprawled out across his chest. He knows they didn’t sleep together because there is no way he would have forgotten about that. So why is she in his room? 

Sliding his hand gently along her back, Max whispers her name. Popping her head up from his chest in confusion, Liz stares straight into his wide eyed. “How did you end up here? Not that I’m complaining to waking up to a beautiful woman on my chest but…” Max smiles lopsidedly at her. 

“There was a storm. The walls were shaking and I came to hide from it with you. I didn’t fall asleep on you, I swear.” Liz sits up quickly and the pink satin straps of her nightgown slide down at her movement and she pulls them back into place. Max watches her smooth tan skin appear and disappear entranced. He enjoys waking up with her but doesn’t let his mind explore that much further or he’d never be able to focus with her in the car with him all day again.

“What storm? I didn’t wake up once last night.” Max wipes the sleep from his eyes. He needs coffee and to brush his teeth.

“I know. You were snoring almost as loud as the thunder while the wind was slamming the patio furniture against the sliding doors.” Liz teases him. 

Max swings his feet out of bed and walks over to the sliding glass door. Pulling back the curtains, he hmms seeing that sure enough, all of the patio furniture has been swung around and it is wet outside. “Huh. How did I miss that? Let’s get dressed and track down some breakfast.”


	5. Chapter 5

Liz waits until Max isn’t paying attention and snatches one of his pieces of bacon. When he starts to turn around, she shoves the whole thing in her mouth and looks out over the restaurant innocently.

“Did you just steal my bacon?” Max raises an eyebrow at her in suspicion.

Trying not to giggle because she will choke on her food, Liz swallows then replies “Noooo.”

Max gasps as if in outrage, then playfully steals a bite of her eggs. Liz’s mouth pops open in surprise before she bursts into giggles.

“Aren’t you two the cutest couple!” Their middle aged waitress smiles, as she refills their coffee. 

“Oh! We’re not…” Liz scoffs

“Definitely not a couple. We’re coworkers.” Max nods enthusiastically.

“Oh. My mistake.” The waitress walks off to the next table and Liz and Max stare at each other for a few moments awkwardly. I mean, technically she slept in his bed last night. But there was no touching, just light snuggling. Except that one time a month ago where they had. Liz flushes thinking about their time in Denver and excuses herself to go to the bathroom and cool off.

—————————-

They spend the next two days interviewing families and collecting DNA samples from them to try to identify the victims. All the families they interview say their daughters frequented Rancho night at the Wild Pony and Max files that detail away to inspect later. They stay in their own rooms, hyper aware of the other one and trying to remain professional despite having enough sexual tension that you could cut it with a knife.

Now that they have collected all the samples from families in Albuquerque, Max and Liz will go to Sante Fe for a couple days, then drop off the samples they have in Roswell to get started on the testing. Then, they will go to Las Cruces for two days on the way to El Paso for another three days. 

—————————

On the way to their next stop in Santa Fe, something occurs to Liz. 

“Hey, Max?” Liz looks over at him driving shyly through her eye lashes.

“Hmm?” He glances over at her curiously. She is usually so bold that he is wary of what she could be thinking about that is making her nervous.

“When we met, the second time, you gave me a note that said we needed to talk but we never did. What did you need to talk about?” Liz twiddles her thumbs nervously. They should have had this conversation a week ago, but better late than never right?

Max chokes on his own saliva and turns bright red. “Oh! Well. Uhm, I don’t remember a lot from that night and the next morning, I didn’t find any condoms in the trash and was just wondering if we used anything? And what you remember from that night? We had both drank so much that it is fuzzy.” He glances over at her to see her reaction and briefly drives over the rumble strips as he drives over the divider line on the freeway.

Liz is positive she hears him wrong. “I’m sorry, but what?” 

“A condom? Did we use one?” Max focuses on driving straight and can feel sweat dripping down the back of his neck from nerves.

“Seriously?” Liz’s eyebrows furrow in confusion at his question.

“Well, yes. Because I didn’t find any used ones the next morning. There were two unused ones on the nightstand. I’m never this irresponsible.” Max’s eyes flare wide and he speaks rapidly. “I honestly think that was my first one night stand. I didn’t even buy you dinner first. What is wrong with me?”

Liz bites her lip and tries not to laugh. “You bought me a ton of drinks. The good top shelf tequila.”

“That’s not helping.” Max runs his hands through his hair, messing it up in a way that looks like he just rolled out of bed. “Have you had your, uh, period since we…” He doesn’t even wait for her to respond before continuing on, flushed. “Do I need to get tested for… things? We could go to the doctor together since we’re both on Roswell PD insurance…”

Liz holds up a hand. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m not doing that with you. And we didn’t have sex.”

“We didn’t? But I remember you naked underneath me…” Max’s eyebrows crease and he looks adorably confused.

“No. We got close- very close- but you were never inside me.”

“But you were under me and naked..” Max trails off thinking about the flash of memory he keeps getting. He discreetly shifts his erection at the image.

“Yes. We were doing other things, and I was under you.” Liz’s breath gets husky and a weird energy seems to pass between them. She swears her skin is crackling with the need for him to touch her.

“And we were naked.” Max’s voice is all gravelly and low.

“Yes. Super naked.” Liz’s voice sounds like if he pulled over right now, they would be naked again.

Max looks so confused and it takes everything in her not to just grab him and kiss him. But they are coworkers and it is a bad idea. Especially while he is driving down a two lane highway.

“How much do you remember?” Liz asks, clearing her throat at her dirty thoughts.

“Bits and pieces of everything I think? Except the sex part, but you said that didn’t happen so that makes sense?” It’s more of a question than a statement.

“Not technically, no.” Liz explains. She can smell his aftershave and her skin is covered in goosebumps from awareness of how close he is in the vehicle.

“What, exactly, does that mean?” Max asks her curiously.

When Max said he needed to talk, Liz expected literally anything other than wanting to rehash all the dirty details of their night together. “Uh, you went down on me…”

Max’s voice is gravelly and he clenches the steering wheel to keep his hands to himself. “I remember that part, vividly.”

“Do you remember what happened after that?” Liz plays with her silver ring to keep herself distracted and not launch at him.

“I made you come with my mouth. Twice.” Max rubs his lips recalling the way she tasted and the noises she made.

“And your fingers.”

“And my fingers.” Max nods in agreement. “You seemed to enjoy that alot.”

He smiles lopsidedly at her and her stomach flips. Max is such a good man but his mouth is so dirty. “I did. Like it, you know, alot.” Now Liz is all flushed.

“I did too.” Max’s tongue drags along his bottom lip and Liz follows it with her eyes. “It gets murky for me after that.”

It is definitely not murky for Liz. He had crawled back up her body kissing her bare skin, and pausing at her nipples before returning to her mouth. He kissed her thoroughly so she knew what she tasted like all over his tongue. A shiver goes down her spine and her vagina clenches at the memory. She had been the one to wrap her legs around his waist and rub against him. It wasn’t the smartest thing she had ever done, to rub against a man she just met with nothing in between them, but it had felt amazing. 

“We uh, humped until we came.” Liz avoids his eyes in the rearview mirror. 

“We almost..” Max adds, as if he is remembering the moment too.

“Yes. You slipped in once, for just a moment.” Liz remembers being shocked at how full he made her feel before he realized where he was and suddenly pulled out. 

“On accident?”

They both nod in a daze, as if they are both remembering the moment- which they are. His large dick had slid against her clit as he rolled his hips. He made a feral groan when he accidentally entered her with just his tip, and then they both seemed to realize it wasn’t a good idea. They stilled, and Max said it wouldn’t be right to have sex as intoxicated as they were. They rubbed against each other until she came and he ejaculated on her stomach. They breathe heavy from the memory of that night and the need to touch each other. 

“I came on you.” Max suddenly blurts, embarrassed.

“You did. Here,” Liz gestures at her stomach. “And here” Liz gestures at her breasts.

“That is so disrespectful, I’m so sorry.” Max grits his teeth at the image. He wants to do it again, sober.

“Why? It was one of the most intense sexual experiences of my life. I came a million times and we didn’t even have sex.” Liz twirls her long dark hair, thinking about how intense it was.

“Oh yeah?” Max puts his shoulders back and sits a little straighter.

“Don’t get cocky.” Liz tells him sternly.

“It was one of the most erotic experiencse of my life too. I’ve thought alot about your mouth since then. My ex wouldn’t do that.” Max blushes thinking about how good her mouth had felt around his length.

“Really? That’s a shame.” It’s kind of funny to see Max being shy about sex considering how graphic he is in the bedroom. And Liz knows she rocked his world deep throating his entire length. “She wouldn’t lick it? Kiss it? Suck it just a little?” Liz teases him.

Max blinks several times in a row then swallows thickly. “No. She didn’t.”

Liz tries not to be smug about the effect she is having on him, then remembers they are coworkers and working in close proximity for at least the next few months. “So uh, we have separate rooms booked in Sante Fe, right?”

“Yes. We don’t have to use both of them though if you want to…” Max just leaves the idea hanging in between them.

“I don’t think it's a good idea, Max. I want you so badly but we work together. We owe it to the victims to focus on them and keep our hands to ourselves.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Max turns on his blinker at their exit and heads for the hotel.

Once alone again in his room, Max rearranges his hard and gives it a gentle tug. You can’t always get what you want, he thinks.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to @emilaysjonas for the Spanish help

Once in Santa Fe, Max and Liz roll their luggage to their separate but adjoining rooms and carefully avoid each other for the rest of the afternoon. Their conversation in the car had been very intense- and arousing. The lines were starting to blur between business and pleasure while they were on the road and Liz wasn’t sure that was a good thing. As a latina woman scientist, it was important that she keep up the utmost job integrity to be taken seriously.

“What should we have for dinner?” Liz doesn’t even ask if he wants to eat together any more. It is a guarantee that they are a team and eating together on the road.

“Not italian.” Max doesn’t even need to check his caller ID. He knows her by her voice by now.

“Why?” Liz is kind of craving eggplant parmesan.

“Too much garlic and what if you want to kiss me later?” He’s just teasing her- mostly. He wouldn’t complain if she wanted to though. He thinks about her more than he does any normal coworker. She drives him crazy.

“Max!” She doesn’t know how to handle this flirty side of him. She loves it, but she definitely shouldn’t encourage it. Not if she wants to stay professional.

Max chuckles. Her walls are starting to come down around him again. He can feel it. But he won’t push it until she is ready. He wants her to come to him willingly. “Italian it is. I’ll meet you in the lobby in ten.”

—————————

The next morning, Max and Liz find themselves interviewing a family that only speaks Spanish. Max tries to lead, but Liz ends up being the translator. The house is decorated eclectically and bright but homely.

“Buenos Dias” Mrs. Lopez smiles after leading them to the kitchen table with hand crochet lime green placemats. She sets a plate of meat and tortillas on the table for Liz and Max then turns to get them coffee. She is a petite middle aged latina woman with a cropped haircut that the younger generation would call a “Karen” haircut, but she just likes it because it’s faster to get ready.

Max picks up a couple pieces of carne asada, and loads them into a tortilla making a taco on his plate. After daintily sprinkling some salsa on it, he nonchalantly asks, “no lo quiero con preservativos?”

Mrs. Lopez gasps, scandalized as Max said he prefers to go without a condom and looks to Liz for an explanation. She expected them to come here to talk about her missing daughter not their sex life.

“I’m so sorry! I think he meant does this meat have any preservatives, right Max?” Liz quickly repeats herself in Spanish for the woman who nods in understanding and tells Liz that he is trying to impress her by speaking Spanish. Liz shakes her head and flushes at the idea. Whispering in Max’s direction, Liz informs him, “You told her you don’t want to wear a condom.”

“What? I… What?” Max flushes from the tips of his ears to his hairline. Technically, he does not. But this is not the time. Max clears his throat and tries to apologize. “Lo siento, estoy embarazada”

Liz shakes her head. “Max, you aren’t pregnant.” Liz explains to Mrs. Lopez that Max apologized and is embarrassed as Max suddenly darts out of the house in a tall bow legged breeze of cologne.

“Se fue corriendo” Mrs. Lopez comments, watching Max scurry out of the house. 

Giggling at the woman’s observation that Max ran away, Liz quickly assures her that he did not and is just embarrassed at his poor recall of high school spanish. She continues the interview, taking diligent notes on her daughter, Heather’s last known whereabouts and any enemies she had. 

—————————

After a long day of interviewing families and having dinner at a roadside diner, they return to their rooms to shower and get ready for bed. Digging through her suitcase, Liz realizes she is out of clean things to sleep in. She could sleep in her last clean outfit, but then she wouldn’t have anything clean to wear for work tomorrow. Giving in, she pads barefoot over to the door separating her and Max’s rooms and knocks twice quickly hoping he hasn’t gotten into the shower yet.

Opening the door shirtless in his unbuckled work pants, Max looks to Liz concerned. She only comes to him when she really needs something. 

Liz gulps at all of the skin on display and tries to remember why she knocked in the first place. “Max, I’m out of clean pajamas to sleep in. Do you have a tshirt I could borrow or something?” 

Max steps back, inviting her into his room and walks over to his suitcase. Digging around, he pulls out a worn blue cotton shirt that he was going to sleep in but he will go shirtless so that she can have something to sleep in tonight. Handing it to her, he whispers, “If we don’t catch this bastard, he’s going to kill again.”

Liz gently takes the shirt from him and steps into him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Oh, Max. We will figure it out.”

Max slips his arms around her waist and pulls her closer, resting his chin on top of her head. “It just feels like we’re two steps behind the killer, you know? We don’t even know who some of these victims are yet.”

“Hey? Max?” Liz takes a step back and waits for him to look at her. “We will. The two of us are an amazing team. If anyone can do it, it’s us.”

“You think so?” He looks at her hopefully, like she’s his world.

“I know so.” Liz can’t think straight when he looks at her like that. Before giving it too much thought, she bounces up onto her tiptoes and crashes her lips to his. The world stops spinning as they find their way to each other once again. 

Max traces the seam of her lips before gently slipping his tongue in her mouth. Their tongues briefly dance and at her groan, he squeezes her ass and pivots her towards the bed. The second Liz’s back hits the mattress and she feels Max’s erection pressing against her thigh, she shoves his chest- hard. 

“Nope, nope, nope. I’m not going to be this girl, Max.” Liz is breathing hard and deliciously disheveled. 

Max is rock hard and so confused. “What girl?” The girl of his dreams? The girl that rocks his world? The girl he gives everything to? Whatever she wants she can have it, just as long as they don’t stop.

“The girl who fucks her coworker on a trip and acts unprofessional then gets fired. That’s what girl.” Liz looks like she is going to cry she is so disappointed in herself.

“But what if we…” Max starts, wondering if they were in a relationship if she would feel better.

“Not right now. Thank you for the Tshirt, Max.” Liz quickly strides out of his room, before she does something stupid like turn around and jump him.

Once alone again in his room, Max rearranges his hard on and gives it a gentle conciliatory tug. You can’t always get what you want, he thinks.

After her shower, Liz pulls on fresh panties and Max’s shirt. She’s surrounded by his scent. It smells like rain.

—————————

“Put your hands up! Give me all the kisses you have, real slow.” Max whispers, coming into Liz’s room the next morning to bring her a cup of coffee just the way she likes it. 

“Maaaaax.” Liz warns him. She hasn’t even brushed her teeth yet and last night was a mistake. She thinks. Maybe? The kiss was out of this world but they work together and she is always on the road working with different precincts. What kind of future could they have?

“Nice and easy….” He continues, taking a step closer. A shiver goes up Liz’s spine at deepening of his voice like it did when they were in bed together. Max is in low slung gray sweatpants and his curls are wild first thing in the morning

“We can’t.” She definitely can’t. She’s just wearing his worn Collective Soul t shirt and if she puts her hands up, it will lift up sinfully high and she will end up flashing him. Not that Max will mind. 

“We could” Max sets her coffee on the bedside table in her hotel room and turns to face her, raising an eyebrow in question.

“We shouldn’t” Liz tries to remain stern.

“Why not? We would be great together.” Max gently takes her hands in his.

“Because it risks my entire career if I become that girl that fucks her partner then moves on to another precinct when things go badly.” Liz tries to maintain eye contact when Max flinches at her words.

“What if it doesn’t go badly, Liz? It could hurt my career too. I’ve never been willing to risk it for anybody but you. You’re worth the risk.” Max wills her to believe his sincerity with his eyes.

Liz sighs, her morale weakening. “I’ll think about it, okay? I promise. We got to get ready for work. Last day of Santa Fe then we will drop off all of the samples to be sent to be tested and pack for the next week in Las Cruces and El Paso.

“That’s all I ask.” Max assures her, leaving her room to go get dressed for the day.


	7. Chapter 7

Driving back to Roswell that Friday evening to drop off the samples to be tested and pack for the next leg of their journey, Max notices after a while that Liz has stopped dancing in her seat and singing along to the pop songs she insisted on having on the radio. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, he sees that she has fallen asleep. She looks like an angel when she sleeps. The skin on her arms is covered in goosebumps from the blasting AC and Max flips her vents up to turn the air off of her since she is cold. 

When he stops to get gas a little ways later, he pulls out the navy blanket he keeps in the cruiser for emergencies. Gently tucking her in, he smiles when her brown eyes flutter open at him briefly in confusion. Kissing her forehead, Max whispers, “Sleep, Liz. I’ll wake you before we get there.” She lets off a soft sigh and falls back asleep, feeling safe and surrounded by Max’s scent.

————————————-

Max pulls up to the station when they arrive and puts the cruiser in park. He snorts when he realizes Liz is drooling with her mouth wide open, deep in sleep. “Liz. Hey, Lizzy.” He whispers quietly at her, trying not to startle her. 

“What? Huh? Max, why is Garth Brooks on the radio? It was MY turn.” Liz pouts, looking around in confusion when she realizes they are in front of the Roswell Police Department. “Oh! Max, how long has the SUV been turned off? My samples can’t get hot or we have to start all over!” Liz frantically unclicks her seatbelt and dives for the isolated cooler containing her labeled DNA samples they had collected to check on them. 

Max smirks at her legs hanging across the console in the middle of the front seat while he tries not to stare at her ass while it wiggles as she tries to pull the styrofoam lid off to check on her samples. “I shut your vents off because you were cold and gave you a blanket. That’s why you’re hot. I didn’t let your samples get ruined, I swear.” Max smiles lopsidedly at her in the rearview mirror and holds his hands up in surrender. 

“Oh. Ohhh.” Liz flushes, embarrassed at her overreaction. “I guess I’ll take these home with me so I know they stay refrigerated then mail them off in the morning to my lab.”

“Sounds like a plan. Feels weird being up here in my civvies.” Max shifts in his seat, feeling a bit underdressed even though he is off the clock. Sighing, he rounds the SUV to pull out Liz’s suitcase to help her to her car. His mother would never would never forgive him if he didn’t help a lady with her heavy things- especially one he wanted to court. 

“Thank you for being a good partner, Max. I had as good a time as a woman can have collecting spit to solve murders.” Liz glances up at him walking next to her out of the corner of her eye, smiling shyly at him as she carries her DNA samples carefully. She gently places them in her passenger seat while Max picks up her overstuffed suitcase like it weighs nothing and places it in the back seat.

“The pleasure was all mine.” Max smiles so wide the corner of his eyes crinkle and he tips his head at her. Turning once he’s sure she’s safe and has buckled her seatbelt, he heads for his jeep to go to his house.

—————————

The next morning, Liz arrives at the post office when it opens to pack her samples in their cooler in a special refrigerated truck to the lab at the University of New Mexico where the Roswell PD sends it’s DNA samples. Graduate and PHD students will map the DNA in the samples while Max and Liz collect the samples in Las Cruces and El Paso. That way they will only have to wait one week after getting back instead of two. Then she will mail off the samples they collect in those towns while they are analyzing the data from the previous weeks. 

When she gets home to pack, Liz finds herself packing cute little chiffon nightgowns with matching lace panties for the last leg of their trip. Just in case someone tall, dark, and handsome should see her in them. As an afterthought, she hurls in an extra disposable razor, condoms and a satin dress as well. She throws in her usual sensible work casual clothes, chaste pajama sets and extra panties and zips her suitcase shut. 

She showers and gets ready for bed, glancing at Max’s Collective Soul Tshirt sitting in her dirty clothes pile. She fishes it out and pulls it on to sleep in. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him and she likes the way it smells like rain.

—————————

The next morning, Max picks her up in front of The Crashdown in his cruiser. Before Liz can just throw in her suitcase and go, the front door swings open and her father approaches Max.

“So, you’re my little nina’s partner, huh?” Arturo sizes Max up, who comes around the front of the SUV to help Liz with her luggage. Max firmly shakes Arturo’s hand and makes eye contact then turns to grab Liz’s suitcase before she can try to lift it herself.

“Yes, sir. That’s me.” Max hurls Liz’s suitcase up into the SUV then turns back to her father, leaning casually on the passenger door. “Liz, you’re missing a snack bag or something right? You usually have three things.”

“Oh dios mio! I helped with breakfast this morning and almost forgot the new cooler for our samples!” Liz runs back into the Crashdown as a blur of nervous energy and Max watches her riveted.

“If you hurt her, the buzzards won’t be able to find anything to eat, the pieces will be so small.” Arturo warns noticing how fascinated Max is with his daughter.

“That’s very understandable, sir.” Seeing Liz dart back out of the restaurant breathless and carrying her padded cooler filled with ice packs, Max heads to the drivers seat. “Ready to roll?”

“Yup. I call radio!” Liz bounces once.

“You always do. No Britney Spears it’s too early, ok?” Max looked behind him before merging into traffic while Liz wavesi goodbye to her father.

—————————

Max and Liz sit in the hotel bar after arriving in Las Cruces and dropping off their suitcases, watching couples dance to a local band. Max sips on an IPA beer and she sips on a glass of red wine.

A young good looking guy in a backwards baseball cap catches Liz’s eye and smiles. She saw him earlier at a loud table full of guys drinking beer by the pitcher. They were rowdy and hard not to notice but now it is just him and his blue eyes are placed squarely on Liz. She doesn’t think she encourages him, but the man comes over and takes her hand to ask her to dance.

Liz swears she hears Max growl across from her. She turns to look at Max and is surprised to see a murderous expression in his eyes. He’s never looked this formidable before with his shoulders straight back and his mouth in a snarl staring daggers at the man asking her to dance. 

“I’m so sorry. I can’t dance.” Liz smiles awkwardly at the man, trying to pull her hand from the stranger's grasp.

“Aw, c’mon.” The man insists, tugging on Liz’s hand a little.

“She. Said. No.” Max leans forward, his voice so deep he’s practically growling at the other man. 

The man scoffs, stumbling back into the table behind him and dropping Liz’s hand like it bit him. “If you change your mind, I’ll be right over there.”

“Ok. Buh Bye now.” Max waves jovially at his competitor as the man struggles to stay upright on his way back to his bar stool. 

Liz chugs the rest of her glass of wine and is too embarrassed to look at Max after the display of testosterone she just witnessed. She sees his chair suddenly scoot out from her peripheral vision and glances up at him as he stands and comes around to her side of the table holding out his hand. She gingerly takes his and he lifts her up out of her chair with his. “Dance with me?” He asks gruffly, as if he had to ask, leading her out to the dance floor. 

Liz is kind of glad he didn’t really wait for her to answer him because she would have overthought it. But nobody that knows them is here and Max definitely needs the other guy to know that she is off limits. Besides, now that he is drawing her in close and sliding his hands across her exposed lower back sending shivers in their wake, Liz can’t remember why she would want to be anywhere else in the world. 

Max pulls her up against him so that their chests brush against eachother with Liz a couple extra inches taller in her black strappy heels. Max rests his forehead against hers and they sway back and forth as they become braver with their exploration of eachothers back’s with their hands. Surprising her, Max brushes his hand across Liz’s ass and pulls her in closer, erasing the last couple inches of space between them as their hips rock into eachother. Liz gasps at the sensation, surprised at how needy she sounds even to her own ears. 

Max’s eyes catch hers and it’s like a flame drags across her, heating every inch of her body. “Max?” Liz groans in question. The lines are becoming so blurry. She doesn’t even remember why they were there to begin with. The music is slow and romantic with the type of rhythm they can’t help but mimic with their hips. 

Liz takes a deep breath then drags her hands up his broad chest until she wraps them around his neck, looking wide eyed into his brown eyes. She can feel the ground shifting underneath them. 

Max glides his hands gently up past her waist, smoothing the satin fabric down as he goes so he doesn’t accidentally expose too much skin in his exploration. He coasts past the edges of her bra and they both suck in a breath. He can’t stop touching her or get enough. Liz hasn’t ever been this close to a man without kissing him before. She tilts her chin up to him and he responds right away as though he was waiting for her cue, dropping his mouth so it hovers just above hers to be sure she isn’t going to change her mind. At her whispered, “Please” Max finally closes the distance between them. He tilts his head and deepens it, sweeping his tongue into her mouth once teasing her. 

Liz bounces up onto her tiptoes and Max moans, his hands tightening around her to align them even further. If they were alone, his hands would be going under the slits in her dress and higher up. But since they are not, they show each other what they wish they could be doing to their entire bodies with their tongues. Suddenly, the song ends and all around them, people are clapping. 

Max and Liz jump apart guiltily, like they’re two magnets that will just get pulled back together if they get too close together again. Liz looks around confused as to how she went from innocently sipping her wine to dry humping her partner in public. Max looks like a lion stalking a gazelle. Liz gulps. 

He pulls his fingers through his dark hair, spiking it repeatedly before stalking back over to Liz, grabbing her hand and walking briskly towards the elevator.

“Where are we going?” Liz asks, even though there’s only one place they could possibly be going.

“To our room.” Max states, like it’s obvious. He jabs the button for the third floor where their adjoining room is then stands on the opposite wall of the elevator from her, tapping his lip nervously as the elevator slowly climbs upwards. When the door dings, Max is quickly out and Liz follows him down the brightly colored carpet to their room, confused. 

Max quickly unlocks the door and swings it open, gesturing for Liz to go ahead of him. Their adjoining living area is dark and quiet but Liz views it from new sexy eyes. He could bend her over that pull out couch or prop her up against that side table if it got her up tall enough. They could even do it up against the sliding glass doors to their balcony or if she was quiet, against the balcony railing itself. 

Max is looking around wildly as if he is thinking the same, but instead of pulling her into his arms and picking things back up where they started on the dance floor, he groans as if in pain. Throwing his hands up in the air and striding quickly to his bedroom door, Max calls over his shoulder, “You should go to bed, Liz.”

Bed? 

BED?! 

“What? Bed? Alone? Why?” Liz’s heart is pounding and she’s so confused. 

“Because, Liz, you weren’t sure about this a couple days ago and I don’t want to take advantage of you. I want you to be sure you want this before we take that step. Make sure you lock the door to your room tonight.” Max doesn’t give her time to argue before he leaves her gaping after him as he retreats. She hears the sound of his lock turn in the deadbolt and a thump thump thump like something is banging against the door in frustration. 

Liz locks the door to her room like he asked, takes a cold shower and sleeps in pink sheep pjs that night since she has no one to show off her nighties to.


	8. Chapter 8

To apologize for leaving her hanging the night before, Max pays for a massage for Liz at the front desk when he goes down stairs to get them both coffee and a muffin at dawn. The message will be a nice surprise for Liz when they get off work that day. Juggling two coffees and two blueberry muffins, Max tries to figure out how to hit the button back up to their floor. Taking pity on him, a businessman in a hotel robe hits the up button on the elevator for both of them then waits for Max to tell him which floor. 

“Third floor, thank you so much.” Max smiles at the man. He’s a little nervous to see Liz that morning after shooting her down last night. He knows it was the right thing to do but he hopes she isn’t angry at him. 

When the elevator dings at his floor, Max exits and walks down the bright orange carpeted hallway to his and Liz’s room. He sets their coffees on the floor and pulls the key card out of his back pocket, swishing it quickly in hopes of not waking Liz. He sets their muffins on the coffee table in their mutual area then goes back to the hallway for their coffees. After eating his breakfast, he goes out to the patio in just his grey sweatpants for his morning workout while watching the sun rise.

When Liz wakes up that morning, she startles at movement outside the window in her bedroom coming from the patio. She settles when she realizes it is Max. He’s glistening with sweat and finishing up doing pushups on one of the plush white hotel towels on the balcony as the sun rises over the desert canyons. It makes him look gold kissed as he flips onto his back and lifts his knees to do sit ups. He must feel her eyes on him because after a while, he glances up towards her window and looks right at her as he does his last crunches. Liz would be embarrassed but based on the way he is biting his lip and smoldering at her, he is getting off on her watching him work up a sweat.

When he stands up and starts wiping the sweat off his brow and chest, she forces herself to roll out of bed and pry herself from the show. It looks like he is done working out anyway. Padding into the living area on bare feet, Liz finds still warm coffee just the way she likes it and a blueberry muffin. Max must have brought her up breakfast when he got his. He’s always thoughtful like that. Liz smiles warmly and flops down onto the stiff orange hotel pull out couch, like she was there the whole time and not just shamelessly ogling her partner. 

When Max comes in from the patio, Liz shyly looks up at him through her long lashes. “Thank you for bringing me breakfast, Max.”

“What? You ate my breakfast!” Max deadpans, placing his hands on his hips causing Liz’s eyes to follow their movement.

“You can’t fool me with that trick again. You say that every morning. Besides, you don’t put cream in your coffee.” Liz sticks her tongue out at him in defiance, then sips her coffee daintily. 

Max puts his hand over his heart as if she wounded him and staggers back a couple steps. “I can’t believe you finally caught on to my tricks! The mystery is already gone.” At her giggle, Max’s voice softens and he leans forward. “Good morning. How did you sleep? I like your sheep pajamas.” Max smiles lopsidedly at her, the sun surrounding his profile from the patio door.

“I would have slept better with you” Liz admits before she can stop herself, then quickly looks away from his piercing gaze.

“We were drinking and I wanted you to be sure, Liz.” Max begs her to understand and not be angry at him. “I got you a present for later though.”

Liz nods in understanding then bounces up to him, laying her dark doe eyes on him. “What’s my surprise?”  
“Can’t tell you.” Max smirks at her bouncing this early in the morning. Liz always gets a caffeine rush after her coffee.

“Please?” Liz bats her lashes up at him staring beseechingly at him.

“I plead the fifth. You’ll know soon enough.”

————————————-

Liz pulls out her black pinstripe pencil skirt, white short sleeve blouse, and strappy black sandals to make herself taller. She gets dressed for the day, then pulls her hair up into a tight bun. She looks completely professional and no nonsense, but for some reason the look always drives Max crazy. He tries to be discreet but she knows. She pulls on a large silver and turquoise ring and her silver hoop earrings. Then, she puts on some mascara and pink lip gloss, then grabs her purse ready for the day. 

Max briefly goes slack jawed when Liz comes out of her room dressed like a librarian. He doesn’t think she means to drive him crazy but it distracts him. He idly shifts his erection as Liz strolls right up to him, places her hand on his stomach and leans past him for something. He is surrounded by the smell of her perfume and briefly forgets what he was even doing. Liz grabs a ball point pen off the hotel desk and tucks it neatly behind her ear. 

“You ready?” Liz asks, patting Max’s stomach as she walks away towards the door to leave for the day.

“What?” Max blinks a couple times, lost in a haze of pink lip gloss, dark hair and perfume. “Oh! Yeah. Yes.” He grabs the keys to the cruiser off the desk and his long strides quickly catch up with her at the door while she giggles at the effect she has upon him. 

————————————-

When they return to the hotel, the furniture has been rearranged to fit two massage tables and candles are lit around their room. A soothing romantic playlist is playing and there are two masseuses waiting on them- a male and a female wearing scrubs. The perky blonde masseuse in pink scrubs steps forward. “A Mr. Evans ordered a couples massage?”

“Oh, uh, it was just supposed to be Liz…” Max stumbles over his words, flushing. “And I really don’t feel comfortable..”

“Max, we’re both adults. We can handle this.” Liz shushes him. “I mean, it’s not like it’s an erotic massage, right?”

“Those exist?!” Max swears his voice has risen two octaves at the image.

“Don’t worry, sir! I’ll be the one massaging Mrs. Evans.” The blonde beams at them and Max swears he swallows his tongue at the idea of Liz being his wife. 

“We just work together.” Max blurts, startled. 

“Max, it’s fine.” Liz reassures him. “How far do I strip down?” Liz calls over her shoulder, picking up the fluffy white hotel robe on the massage table closest to her room. 

“Whatever you feel comfortable in. Preferably nude or just underwear. You too, sir. We will return in 5 minutes and get started.” The african american male masseuse smiles warmly at Max, handing him his robe. 

“This is going to be torture.” Max pinches his nose, then continues mumbling to himself while Liz casually starts getting undressed the second the door closes and they are alone. “Why did I plan this massage? I was trying to be nice but you’re going to drive me crazy. Oh my god, Liz! Where are your pants?”

Liz kicks her skirt towards her room and glances up at him. “They said to strip down to our underwear. Turn around if you’re so worried about it.”

Max’s left eyebrow arches intrigued as he starts mirroring her unbuttoning her work shirt. “I’d rather not.” 

Liz tosses her shirt and bra and at him and covers her breasts with her hands. “Can you help me get under the white sheet so I don’t flash anybody?”

“Not even me?” Max pouts, unbuckling his belt buckle and unzipping his jeans. He religiously takes his boots off before entering a room after work so he doesn’t have to worry about his jeans getting hung up on them. 

Liz narrows her eyes at him and lifts the white sheet on the massage table, letting her hands fall away from her breasts. Max gasps at her boldness as his jeans drop to the floor and Liz takes the opportunity to peruse his body before he darts under his own white sheet at a knock at their door.

“Yoo hoo! You two ready?” Calls out the woman masseuse. She tells them her name is Karen and the man’s name is Chad.

————————————-

Liz soon realizes that Max was right. A couples massage is torture. It’s basically like being in an hour long foreplay session where you can hear the other person making blissful noises but you’re being touched by strangers and orgasming is frowned upon. 

Liz tries not to watch Max while Karen works her magic across her legs but there’s only so many places you can look in a tight hotel room. Liz attempts to keep her attention on the opposite wall but then she is asked to change positions and she has no choice but to watch Max. His eyes are closed as he lies on his back as Chad runs his hands down his arms, digging his heels into his muscles. It probably feels really good after Max’s work out that morning. 

Liz feels like a live wire. Karen tells her to relax, that she has tension in her shoulders, and she thinks it is the biggest understatement of the year. 

“Try to relax. You’re so tense!” Karen reminds Liz again and Liz groans in response. Max’s cheek lifts like he is smiling but he doesn’t open his eyes. Apparently, he finds it hilarious how frustrated Liz is right now. 

Liz tries to relax, thinking about happy things, like fresh churro pancakes, being the first Ortecho to not only go to college, but get a PHD. And Max Evans’ hands between her legs. Wait, no. 

Liz bolts upright. “Can I run to the bathroom really quick?” She squeaks out, practically pouncing into the robe Karen holds open for her and fleeing the scene. Now that there is a door between her and naked Max, she feels better and more in control. She splashes some cold water on her face. She just needs to have sex with Max and get him out of her system so she can think straight again. She jumps when she hears a knock at the bathroom door and opens it a crack to see Max standing there. 

“I tipped them and told them they could leave.” Max explains to Liz’s flushed face.

“Why? I was enjoying my massage and we had like thirty minutes left.” Liz avoids his gaze and he tilts her chin up at him.

“Being so close to you while you were making those noises and showing so much skin but not being the one to touch you was driving me crazy too. I thought maybe I could finish your massage.” Max tips his head down and kisses her before she can answer. When Liz finally realizes what is going on, she slides her tongue into his mouth to play with his. 

Pulling back and smiling sweetly at him, Liz goes back into the main living area and waits for Max’s instructions. Max places his large palms on either side of her waist and lifts her up onto the table easily. He gently tugs on her robe and Liz bites her lower lip, wiggling out of it for him. 

“Lie back for me, Liz.” Max whispers, coming to stand where Karen was just a couple minutes ago. He doesn’t bother covering her up with the sheet. He’s seen her naked before and Liz doesn’t seem to mind. He gently arranges her hands by her side then reaches for the massage oil they had left for him. Max drizzles Liz in massage oil from her stomach up past her chest. She lies still, staring up at him intrigued, trying to figure out how far he is going to take this game. He starts to slowly rub the oil into her skin over her abdomen and chest.

Liz holds her breath as he sweeps his oil slicked hands over the outside of the underside of her breasts, then down in between them. She bites her full bottom lip and fights the urge to close her eyes at the electricity running across her skin at what his hands are doing. She’s slightly embarrassed at what he is doing but she wants it too much to tell him to stop. It is her tipping point. 

His large hands glide back down her stomach and over her thighs. Max adds more oil to her legs, working it in to her calves and feet to the sound of appreciative moans from Liz. Then he runs his palms back up, pausing just above her center as if asking her permission. He continues to massage her everywhere except exactly where she needs him.

“Max, please.” Liz finally whines when he bypasses her lower lips again. His eyes glide up to hers and he smirks. He likes what he is doing to her. 

Max leans down and kisses her right nipple then her left, before continuing on with her teasing massage. On the next cycle, Liz parts her thighs to give him a strong hint to move things along and Max chuckles. He smooths his hands down her thighs then flattens them, bearing her to him. He moves down the table so his face is in line with her then he reaches between her thighs and pushes his fingers slowly inside. He pumps them in and out watching her fascinated as she reacts so sensitive to his every movement. And finally she falls over the edge, coming all over his fingers. 

Max groans when she says his name when one of her aftershocks hits her, and he finds himself stroking his length. He raises an eyebrow at her in question as he touches himself and Liz nods rapidly, expecting him to want her to suck him off. After a few good pumps, Max growls out her name and comes across her chest in spurts. It wasn’t what she expected, but she has zero complaints. 

“Max, don’t make me sleep alone tonight.” Liz calls out as he walks to his room to get her a towel and clean up. 

Max smiles lopsidedly over his shoulder at her, “I wouldn’t dream of it.” Liz sleeps in a black lace nighty that night but they just sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

Max skims a hand up Liz’s exposed thigh where her black nightgown rode up in her sleep, smiling as goosebumps erupt over her skin. “Good morning.” His deep voice rumbles as Liz stretches.

“What time is it? You’re already dressed.” Liz remarks, noticing Max is already in crisp jeans and a blue plaid shirt. Liz’s hands flutter around her wild dark mane trying to tame it without a comb. 

“9. I wanted to let you sleep. We’re already checked out, you just have to pack.” He watches her wake up fascinated. They always see each other first thing in the morning but they haven’t ever woken up together before. 

Liz quickly sits up, flustered, Max’s wandering hand dropping to the bed. They’re running hours behind. “9! Max, we have to be on the road to get to El Paso to check in.”

Max chuckles and rolls her over under him, pecking her nose. “Nobody is going to be hoarding hotel rooms in El Paso in September. Kids are in school, it will be a ghost town. Just like everywhere else we’ve stayed.” Max goes to give her a proper good morning kiss and Liz wiggles out from under him. She’s running and he lets her, because he knows she will make a move on him when she’s comfortable again.

“I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.” It’s an excuse while she processes what happened the night before and they both know it. Max will let her run away- for now. 

——————————

“I’m sorry the hotel breakfast was packed up by the time we got down there, Liz.” Max glances over at his partner contrite. “We can pick up anything you want on the way out of town that you want. Oh! Look, that place with the croissants you like.” Max automatically turns on his blinker and heads for the small bakery. Liz had had their chocolate croissant three days that week. 

Max pulls into the bakery parking lot as Liz’s personal cell phone rings and she picks it up with a bubbly “Hola!”. Max pantomimes nibbling a croissant and sipping coffee and Liz nods. He smiles at her rapid fire spanish knowing she is talking to her father and slips out of his seat leaving her to talk to him in peace.

When he returns with her coffee that is more cream than coffee and her chocolate chip croissant a few minutes later, Liz is giggling and talking about some telenova called Rubi. He can hear Arturo on the other line insisting that she needs to catch up on it so they can discuss the latest developments on it together. Apparently, something scandalous happened in the newest episode and he can only discuss it with Liz.

Suddenly, Liz hears a wail of aye caramba and a crash in the background at the Crashdown. “Papi, are you ok?” Max glances over at her concerned before merging onto interstate 10 towards El Paso

“It’s just Fernando. He forgot to use a potholder again.” Liz can practically see her father shaking his head in resignation that his employee will just drop pots every now and then. “Is Max there?”

Max sits up straighter as if Arturo can see him and smiles nervously at Liz. “Yes he is. Why?” Liz asks her father suspiciously.

“He's treating you right? Keeping his hands to himself?” Arturo growls on the other end of the phone. He is a short man, but he protects his family ferociously. 

“Of course, Papi.” Liz sing songs back to him, in a well trained way from teenagehood that probably saved her boyfriend in high school’s life.

“Have a good trip, my amore” Arturo ends the call after another crash in the kitchen.

“Your dad is going to kill me if he ever finds out I touched you.” Max gulps, moving over a lane to avoid a tumbleweed on the two lane highway.

“He better not. I’m a grown ass woman.” Liz takes a defiant sip of her coffee and unwraps her croissant. She hates it when her father treats her like a baby. 

Soon, Max’s personal cell phone rings. His eyes widen comically when his phone begins playing “Bossy” by Kelis and Liz raises an eyebrow at him in question at the bouncy club song. Max asks Liz to answer it since he’s driving and put it on speaker. 

“Hello? Detective Evans’ phone” Liz answers Max’s phone after swallowing her mouthful of breakfast quickly, putting him on speaker phone.

“Oh my god, is this Liz?” Bursts an excited female voice. “Don’t worry, this isn’t a booty call. This is his sister, Isobel. He kept talking and talking about you and swearing you were real.”

Liz giggles nervously and Max growls “Isobel!”

“It’s true little brother!” Isobel chirps back at him cheerfully.

“We’re twins and I’m taller than you. So I’m the older sibling…” Max starts, just as they had argued countless times before.

“If you say so. Anyway, did you finally touch her or still jerking it behind closed doors.” They could hear the smile in her voice but nonetheless, Max sputtered.

“Oh my god.” Max blushed from the collar of his shirt to his ears.

“Oh! I finally mastered that hovercrafting technique you walked in on me practicing with Noah, you’ll be glad to know.” 

Max gags in response while Isobel laughs delighted at his discomfort in her sex life. “Did you just call to torture me in front of my partner?”

“Of course not. Mom said to tell you to come to dinner on Sunday if you are back by then. You should bring Liz so we can meet her.”

“I’m sure Liz has better things to…” Max offers Liz an out, unsure if he is hoping she will accept or not. On the one hand, he wants to get serious with this woman. On the other, his family is freaking embarrassing.

“I’m free Sunday.” Liz pipes up, listening to the siblings fondly. It makes her miss her sister, Rosa.

“Traitor.” Max mumbles at her.

Isobel laughs delightedly. “Perfect! Just bring yourself. Mom always overcooks and has too much wine.”

“Is there such a thing?” Liz smiles.

“You read my mind! Love you, BABY brother.” Isobel exclaims then hangs up. 

The two sit in silence for a moment, before Max breaks it. “So, you’re coming to family dinner.” He sees the sign for Texas approaching up ahead.

“You met my dad. It’s only fair. It doesn’t have to mean anything. We’re colleagues.” Liz twirls her long black hair nervously.

“Right.” Max smirks at her nonchalance.

“Your sister is a lot. Mine was too.” Liz smiles over at Max then jumps at a sudden loud pop. Max curses as the SUV swerves just as they cross the Texas border and eases it to a stop on the shoulder of the road.

“What was that?” Liz looks around panicked for the culprit of the noise.

“Flat tire. It will be ok. We have a spare.” Max leans across the console to squeeze her hand reassuringly then starts unbuttoning his plaid shirt to go out in the peak Texas sun. 

“Max, is this really the time?” Liz flushes, watching his nimble fingers undo the buttons, transfixed. 

“It’s hot outside, Liz. You’re lucky I’m not stripping down to my boxers.” Max winks at her then tosses her his shirt playfully. Liz only huffs his rain scented shirt a little. 

——————————

Liz bites her lip as she watches Max’s arms flex as he finishes tightening the lugnuts on the spare tire on the back right of the cruiser. Max comes up to her open window drenched in sweat carrying the wrench and shoves his head in her window.

“Ohmygodthatfeelssogood.” Max groans when the cool AC hits his face. He gently hands the wrench to Liz then playfully shakes off his sweaty hair in her direction making her squeal at him. “I got the tire put on. We need to stop at the first safe looking hotel we see to stop for the night. I’m not sure the spare will make it all the way to the hotel we were supposed to stop at.”

He gently takes the bottle of water she hands him and goes around to the driver’s side of the cruiser. He waits until an 18 wheeler passes and there is an opening in traffic before opening his door and hopping in quickly. He whips off his sweat soaked white undershirt and tosses it into the backseat, cranking the AC full blast. Liz traces his tattoos with her eyes before being startled by him clearing his throat. 

“Elizabeth, my eyes are up here.” Max gestures at his eyes firmly, before breaking into a grin at her contrite expression. “You're always welcome to look at me, Liz.”

Liz curls into herself at the butterflies that erupt in her stomach at his words, looking out the window for a hotel. “There, Max!” She points one long crimson fingernail at the run down but well lit motel off the side of the road. 

“Good eye, Liz.” Max agrees, turning on his blinker. It is Friday night and the small motel is across the street from a busy bar but seems to be relatively empty. Finding a room shouldn’t be a problem. 

Max puts his plaid shirt back on and buttons it up smiling lopsidedly over at Liz. “Ready?”

At her nod, he meets her around at the hood of the cruiser, placing his palm gently on her lower back to guide her to the front door of the motel. When they reach the front door, he holds it open for her like his mother always taught him to do then follows her to the front desk. 

“Welcome to Motel Del Turo, how can I help you?” A rail thin teenage boy with braces asks from the other side of the counter. 

“We need two adjoining rooms, please.” Liz crosses her arms and smiles serenely up at the boy. 

“Oh. We only have one room. It has a king size bed.” The boy wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. “It’s the jalapeño room. VERY spicy.”

“Oh. No, we couldn’t possibly… I’ll sleep in the cruiser. ” Max starts, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Don’t be silly! We’re both adults and I will just end up in your room anyway.” Liz argues, placing her hands on her hips. 

“You sure?” Max searches her eyes for any hesitation, although she has ended up in his room a lot lately. 

“Positive. I don’t want to sleep in this hotel alone, Max.” Liz looks up at him through her long lashes, biting her lip. 

“We’ll take it.” Max decides, sliding the teen his company card. 

“You guys need condoms, towels or anything?” The boy nods his head suggestively at Max. 

“Just the towels, thank you.” Max signs his name on the receipt feeling like he’s having some sort of out of body experience.


	10. Chapter 10

Max swings open the bright red motel door with a welcome door knocker with an orange chili pepper wearing a sombrero on it. His eyes try to make sense of what he is seeing and he loses his grip on his suitcase in surprise. The room is a lot. Liz’s mouth gapes open as she takes in the shades of white, red, orange and yellow in chili peppers on every visible surface- from the carpet to the wall paper to the comforter on the bed. 

Max takes a tentative step into the room and a few chords of a popular Red Hot Chili Peppers song ring out. “What the heck?” Max looks around, confused. He takes a step back into the cement hallway, then a steps forward back into the room. 

“Give it away, give it away, now!” The Red Hot Chili Peppers ring out once again and Liz giggles. 

“The room is trying to give us a hint.” Liz smirks at Max, rolling her pink suitcase into the room. It is the ugliest thing she has ever seen and she is absolutely obsessed with the dedication it took to make it look that way. Not one object in the room isn’t pepper themed. 

“Do you think all the rooms are like this? Surely they have multiple sets of pepper sheets” Max eyes the motel sheets worriedly. He usually stays at much nicer hotels. 

“Que demonios? Does it smell like enchiladas in here to you?” Liz sniffs the air absolutely convinced she can smell grilled chili peppers. She follows the scent to the bathroom, which is just as covered in peppers from the tiles to the toilet seat. “I found the smell! There’s a Tex Mex scented candle in the bathroom.” Liz calls out to Max.

“They just left that lit? That’s a fire hazard.” Max answers her, concerned. He hopes this place is up to fire code. 

“Don’t worry, I blew it out Grandpa.” Liz sasses him from the other room, a little disoriented by all the colors and patterns mixed together in the bathroom.

“You tease but candles are a leading cause of house fires, Liz.” Max shakes his head. “So, our best hope for finding an open tire shop is in the morning since they are all closed. What do you want to do for dinner? I can let you go crazy in that sketchy vending machine we passed outside or we can see if the bar across the street has food?”

Liz comes out of the bathroom, coiling her long dark hair up into a bun and back down again. “Let’s try the bar across the street. All bars have wings and burgers, right? The snacks in that vending machine are probably as old as this carpet.”

“You’re not wrong.” Max laughs before turning serious. “Hey, don’t let me get drunk. I don’t want to fall on this psychedelic carpet when we come back.” He gestures at the black, orange and yellow carpet with a mirage that makes it look like there are 3D red jalapenos flying across the floor. 

—————————————

The Mineshaft Tavern is a rowdy panhandling pioneer themed dive bar covered in a smoky haze. Like most small towns, the locals can still smoke inside. In the background, there are off key locals singing karaoke on stage over crackling speakers. 

“Oh, Max, karaoke might be fun!” Liz looks up at Max imploringly and he avoids her doe eyed trap.

“Let’s see if we can find something to eat first” He half smiles down at her hoping she forgets about the idea, heading for an empty wooden table that is probably older than they are. 

A middle aged brunette waitress comes over and sets down two menus with jaunty gold toothed panhandlers on the cover. “Hi, I’m Lisa. How can I get you started?”

“We need two shots of top shelf tequila and two waters, please.” Liz beams at the waitress. After the waitress walks off to get their orders, she explains to Max, “Tequila will replace the electrolytes you lost sweating in the heat.”

“I’m not sure that’s true, Liz. Alcohol dehydrates the body.” Max raises an eyebrow at her. Liz is the smartest person he knows but everyone who lives in the desert knows to watch their alcohol intake around the heat. 

“Sure, if you drink the whole bottle. The lime and salt have electrolytes too. Who’s the scientist here?” Liz smiles at the waitress as she sets down their drinks. 

“You are.” Max rolls his eyes goodnaturedly. “I don’t really drink liquor.” 

“Give me your wrist.” Liz instructs him sternly. Max looks at her confused, but doesn’t hesitate to slide his arm palm up across the table towards her. When he gets close enough, Liz lifts his large wrist with her small hand towards her face. Waiting until Max looks into her eyes, she licks a line along the seam of his wrist, tasting the salt of his skin and his cologne. At his gasp of surprise, she smiles, bringing his arm gently back to the table to sprinkle salt where she just licked. 

Liz extends her arm across the table in invitation and Max follows suit, gently cradling her much smaller wrist in his large hand as he brings it up to his lips. He nips her wrist softly once, before running his tongue along the inside of her wrist and returning her arm to the table. Based on how flushed she is, it effects Liz as much as it effected him. Max sprinkles salt across her wet skin then waits for further instructions. 

Liz leans down and licks the salt from Max’s skin, her long dark hair briefly covering her face before taking her shot. She watches him lick the salt from her skin and take his own shot before placing a lime in her mouth. Gesturing to come closer, Liz waits for Max to come share the lime. 

Surprising her, Max cups her cheeks and pulls her closer, pecking her lips before slipping his tongue inside. He pulls back with the lime, smirking at her as he settles back in his seat and sets the lime next to his water glass. Liz looks a little dazed after their kiss. 

Max clears his throat. “So what are you going to order?”

“Hmm?” Liz looks up at him confused. She was daydreaming about doing another one of those shots. 

“I’m thinking about getting a burger, although you can never go wrong with wings.” Max looks from one item to the other. If he orders the burger with the fried egg and bacon on it, Liz will just tease him for eating a heart attack with a bun. But if he orders the one flame rated barbecue wings, Liz will think he’s a wuss. He will get all the spicy he needs from kissing her after whatever terrifying concoction she orders. 

“I’m going to get these fire loco wings. They claim no one can handle them but I’ve been eating spicy since I was a toddler so I think I’ll be alright. There’s no way they compare to Papi’s diablo sauce.” Liz closes her menu decisively. 

—————————————

“I can’t believe I got you to do karaoke!” Liz bounces happily across the dusty white rock parking lot back towards their motel room. 

“You hypnotized me with your Bambi eyes and tequila. I had no chance.” Max pouts before perking right back up. “We sounded just like Rachel and Finn on Glee.”

“I didn’t know you watched that show. No wonder you suggested ‘Don’t Stop Believing’” Tequila makes Liz bouncy and she’s practically skipping to keep up with Max’s longer legs. 

“You can’t tell anybody but I watch it with my sister sometimes.” Max tells her, completely serious. In high school, his sister tried to create a Glee club at their private school but there were so few students that it was practically just the two of them singing songs at assemblies. He makes a mental note to have Noah hide all the evidence of that ever happening before Liz comes over for family dinner. 

“I promise, I won’t. Besides,” Liz pokes Max’s side playfully and he jumps a little because he’s ticklish in that spot. “I think it’s sexy that you’re so close with your family.” 

Max smiles lopsidedly at her, pulling out the sparkly jalapeño keychain as they approach their room. Swinging open the door, they are once again overwhelmed by the decor. 

“Why would someone put a bright illusion carpet in a room across the street from a bar?” Liz muses, feeling a little disoriented by the flying jalapeno illusion.

“Don’t worry. I’ll carry you across it to safety.” Max bends down, offering Liz a piggyback ride. They’re only a little bit tipsy so she doesn’t see the harm in hopping up onto his back.

Max rises up with Liz on his back and steps across the threshold, startling as the bouncy Red Hot Chili Peppers song rings out. Then he has trouble finding his footing due to the busy carpet and finds himself swaying with Liz on his back. “I’m going down, Liz!” He warns, rolling over to cushion her fall on the way down as she squeals from the sudden drop. 

Liz stares down at Max, catching her breath. “You okay? We probably shouldn’t spend prolonged time on this carpet. It’s seen things.” 

“Oh my god, Liz, I dropped you! I’m so sorry.” Max kisses her left eye, then her right eye, then her nose. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, you cushioned my fall.” Liz rests her forehead on his, her breath brushing his cheek each time she exhales.

“Then I’m okay.” Max’s voice softens like it does when he is asking her something personal. It’s his Liz Voice. “Do you want to get ready for bed or…”

“I definitely think we should go to bed. I don’t want to wait anymore, Max.” Liz looks down at him nervous he will find a reason to delay things once again. 

Max looks up at Liz relieved they are having the same thought. “Me neither.” He clears his throat, a bit choked up before rumbling out a joyful laugh. “I consent. I’m going to eat you out until you’re begging to ride me.”

Liz gasps and pushes back, brushing against his growing erection. For a second, Max thinks he has said something wrong until he realizes she has a coy smile and she brushes against his erection again. “Not on this dirty carpet though.”

“What carpet? Oh! Oh.” Max realizes he is laying across a carpet from the 70s that would definitely light up bright blue with a black light and sits up quickly. Liz wraps her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. She clings to his torso like a koala as he stands up from the carpet, heading to the much less shady looking white and jalapeno printed bed set. 

When he is over the bed and it is safe, he drops Liz playfully and she hits the bed with a bounce and a squeal. They kiss furiously, all tongues and wet and teeth until Max suddenly pulls back breathing heavily. “I need to be naked with you.”

“Si” Liz agrees, whipping her pink top up over her head and tossing it at Max. 

He growls at her, trying to pull his navy button up over his head before it gets stuck on his ears. Liz pulls his shirt back down and his mouth back to hers, getting to work on unfastening the buttons on his shirt. Max runs his hands down her sides, gripping two handfuls of ass and pulling her closer to grind against each other in their jeans. 

Liz bites her lip and looks up at him through her lashes, unbuttoning the top button of his jeans and sliding the zipper down. Max toes off his boots and shucks off his jeans, leaving them in a forgotten pile on the floor. He crawls back onto the bed in just his black boxer briefs, tattoos on full display. 

He climbs on top of Liz and nibbles his way up her neck, his hands deftly undoing the four button closure of her jeans in between them. She smells like vanilla, desert rose and something spicy and he is completely intoxicated by it. She wiggles out of her jeans and looks up at him through her long dark lashes, feeling the significance of the moment. 

Liz nips along the edge of his jaw, running a small hand along his abdomen towards his boxers. 

“Not yet.” Max chastises her, stopping her hand at his navel with his own larger one. 

Liz flops back onto the pillows in frustration, hooking her legs around Max’s waist trying to pull him closer. “What’s the problem?”

“I want to savor you. I’ve wanted this a long time.” Max allows her to pull him in between her legs, then holds himself up above her like he is doing a pushup above her. Liz grunts at him in frustration and he laughs, rolling his hips against her center one time. He nuzzles into her neck, breathing in the salt of her skin. “How did you get this scar?” He whispers, running his tongue along a 1” scar along her neck. 

“My sister was really manic and accidentally stabbed me.” Liz runs a nail along Max’s side inspecting one of his tattoos. 

“That tattoo is from my 21st birthday. I got very drunk and woke up with that. That’s why I don’t often drink liquor. Now, can you stop being sassy and let me make love to you for at least an hour?” Max pecks Liz’s lips, raising an eyebrow at her in challenge. 

Liz raises an eyebrow back at him. “You think you’re going to last for an hour?”

“I’ve been trying not to touch you every day for over a month while working in close proximity to you. I plan on dragging this out for hours.” He kisses her again before she can think up a comeback, their tongues stroking against each other. He can’t get enough of the way she tastes of the way her body feels underneath his. 

They kiss, separating long enough for Liz to whip off her bra so quickly that Max almost wonders if it is magic. The last time he saw her topless and laid out before him was at the convention where they met. He wasn’t sober enough to fully appreciate the view like he does now, and he swears he will never take her body for granted again.

Max cups her breasts, perky and the perfect size to fit in the palm of his hand with her mauve nipples peaking as the hotel AC clicks on. He circles them with his thumbs and pushes them together, nuzzling into the valley between them. 

“You’re so fucking luscious.” Max bites the swell kissing one and then the other, savoring the salty taste of her skin before taking her right nipple into his mouth and sucking on the tender flesh. 

Liz gasps and arches, her fingers combing through his dark waves and latching on to pull his head closer. Max traces the nipple with his tongue and scrapes along the tip with his teeth, smiling when Liz’s fingernails dig into his scalp as a warning.

“It’s payback time, Elizabeth.” Max smolders down at her. 

“For what?” Liz asks breathlessly, her fingers gently running through his hair as he begins licking the left breast. 

“For weeks of short pencil skirts, looking like a librarian fantasy in my cruiser and smelling like heaven but not being allowed to touch you.” 

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh. I haven’t masturbated this much since I hit puberty, Liz.” Max sucks the other nipple roughly, nipping her hard enough to make her gasp. 

“So you’re going to punish my nipples because you got chafed? You tortured me too, you know.” Liz’s eyes are on Max’s mouth where he has pulled back, close but no longer touching her. She can feel his breath washing across her wet skin.

“You got yourself off when you went home? How often?” Max rolls her nipple between his fingers while he waits on her to answer him. 

“Every night.” Liz admits, avoiding his eyes and suddenly feeling vulnerable. 

“What did you think about while you got yourself off, Liz?” He needs this to be the same on both sides, for her to have been going crazy not being able to touch him either. 

Her cheeks are flush before finally she admits, “You.”

“Jesus. I can’t wait to hear you begging me to let you come.” Max starts sucking her nipple again, and Liz drags her nails along the back of his skull causing a shot of icy heat to run down his spine. 

Max settles between her legs and they shamelessly make out, rubbing against each other. Liz manages to wiggle her fingers down the back of his boxer briefs, nails biting into his ass and knees pressed against his ribs. Max feels like his brain is completely rebooting from all of the contact, which is crazy because he is hardly a virgin but the things this woman does to him are unreal. 

Liz’s hand is on the move again and suddenly her warm fingers wrap around his hard cock. Max groans and thrusts into her hand seeking friction. Liz tilts her hips down, providing wiggle room for her fingers which slide further into his pants. Nipping the edge of his jaw, she asks. “You know what I think?” 

“Hm?” Max answers, lifting his hips to give her more room to explore. 

“Before you fuck my pussy, I want you to fuck my hand.” Max’s cock kicks in her hand at the idea as her fingers glide along the shaft. “And my mouth, of course.”

“Jesus christ, Liz.” Max has taken the Lord’s name in vain more times in 5 minutes in bed with Liz than he has in his entire life and he can’t seem to stop himself. Maybe taking the edge off is a good idea. Then his mind will be clear to dish out more to Liz when it is his turn. 

He rolls onto his back and Liz straddles his thighs in just her black thong, long black hair cascading down her back and curling in waves around her nipples. She places a palm on the center of his chest, mouth hovering just over his. She sucks his bottom lip and slips her hand inside his boxers, pulling his cock out. 

Sitting up, she rubs her thong covered sex along his shaft, and they both gasp at the feeling of just being separated by thin fabric. On the next stroke forward, Liz slides his cock under the crotch of her panties so he’s gliding across her most sensitive bare skin. 

“Oh fuck, Liz.” Max’s eyes roll up and his erection jumps in her hand as the head glides past her clit. He holds onto her thighs trying to hold on to his last shred of control. 

“Don’t come yet if you want my mouth on you.” Liz warns him and Max lets her torture him. He lays back and enjoys the view as she shifts to kneel between his thighs, naked apart from her panties which are askew from their grinding. 

She wraps one hand around his shaft and cups his balls with the other and bows forward. Her eyes stay on Max as her tongue drags from the base of his shaft to the ridge. She lets out a breath and presses a kiss to the tip. Her dark hair cascades across his thighs and she places wet open mouthed kisses along his shaft. She takes him a few inches then suddenly pops off, the AC hitting his wet sensitive skin.

“Hey, Max?” Liz purrs at him.

Max grunts a response because he isn’t sure he is capable of speaking right now. 

“Can you hold this for me so it’s not in the way? Please?” Liz wraps her long hair up into a loose ponytail and Max quickly replaces her hands with his so he can get her mouth back on him again. He is happy to help.

Liz grins against the head of his erection, thinking she has him right where she wants him. Max wraps her hair once around his wrist to make sure it is completely out of her way and Liz takes him back into her mouth. She teases him, not allowing him in very deep and just sucking the tip of his erection before Max finally has enough and growls. 

Liz pulls him in deeper, bracing her weight on his thighs. “I’m going to come soon, Liz.” Max warns her, thrusting up experimentally. When Liz groans at him controlling her movement, he does it again. “Liz, I’m gonna…” He warns her again, his eyes rolling up in the back of his head when she takes him deeper instead of pulling away as he comes. 

As soon as he regains control of his mind and his body, Max grabs Liz by the waist and flips her onto her back. He captures her swollen, wet lips and sweeps his tongue inside kissing her. She tries to wrap her legs around his waist and rub on him again but he shifts so his legs are bracketing hers and sits down on her thighs to keep them tight together preventing any friction. 

“Oh, no you don’t. It’s my turn and I have weeks of torture to make up for.”


	11. Chapter 11

In retrospect, maybe spending twenty minutes teasing Max wasn’t the greatest of ideas based upon the long, drawn out torture he is laving on her body. She was banking on him being so excited to get inside her that he wouldn’t draw it out. But after months of pent up frustration, Max is taking it out on her in the best way possible. 

“I want you to feel what I feel for you.” Liz admits to him shyly laying sprawled out next to him in bed in the wee hours of that morning after what feels like hours of torture with his mouth. 

“More echos?” Max raises a cocky eyebrow. He had teased her until she begged him for relief repeatedly. He has no doubt he could get her there again if she asked him to.

“And everything else.” Liz giggles as he rolls on top of her again, kissing her soundly.

It’s as close to admitting that she has fallen for him Liz is going to get tonight so Max doesn’t push her. His girl hates feeling vulnerable. So he kisses the back of her hand and holds intimate eye contact before finally sliding inside her. He doesn’t know how he lived without this feeling before now.

Max lifts and lowers her, faster, harder, deeper- whatever she is mindlessly chanting under him. His fingers slide through her long dark hair, teeth gnashing as they try to keep their mouths together. Liz comes once again, her limbs wrapped tightly around his and she feels him tense then relax under her as he quickly follows. 

They catch their breath laying sweaty on their backs side by side. Their ankles are intertwined because the idea of not touching in this moment is unacceptable but they are too hot to be completely touching. Once their breathing has slowed, Liz rolls back on top of Max’s sweaty chest.

“We should probably talk about what comes next…” Liz glances up at Max shyly through her lashes from where she is sprawled out sweaty and naked on top of him.

“Well if you give me a minute to recover…” Max shifts under her suggestively, tracing her spine with the tips of his fingers. He’s exhausted and the happiest he’s felt in a long time.

“Uh uh. That’s not allowed.” Liz shakes her head at him, smiling giddy. She places wet kisses across his chest and his heart before taking a deep breath. “What about when we return to work?”

Max clears his throat at the turn the conversation has taken and feels completely naked under her penetrating gaze. “I guess that would depend on whether you want to continue this or not.” He wills himself to keep his expression neutral in case she shoots him down, but his heart skips at the idea of being together. 

Liz bites her lip and her stomach flips with anxiety. Commitment has always made her nervous and part of her wants to run even considering the idea. “We probably have to go to HR when we get back, right? And sign a waiver?”

Max releases his breath with relief and nods. “Yes, there’s some sort of ‘I consent to be touched by coworker’ form.” 

Liz nibbles along Max’s collar bone before tipping her head up to whisper in his ear. “I completely consent to be touched by my coworker.”

Max rumbles out a laugh before slipping his hands lower down her waist below the pepper printed sheets. “Good.”

____________________

After not near enough sleep, Max’s alarm goes off. Liz grumbles on top of him and he has trouble locating her face under her tangled wild mane from his hands running through it.

Max cuddles her close, whispering, “I know. I don’t want to wake up either. But we have to go get a new tire and I’m not leaving you alone in this sketchy hotel room.”

“Coffee” Max swears he hears from under the mass of dark hair and he smiles, finger combing the ends of her hair. Liz shifts a little, feeling deliciously sore.

“I bet the repair shop will have some good coffee. Not that it matters with all the stuff you add in to it.” Max wishes he could stay in this bed with her forever but work is calling. They have murders to solve and are on a deadline.

With a grumble, Liz squeezes his torso good morning once before her head finally pops up and makes eye contact with him. Max kisses her nose and smiles lopsidedly at her. It always takes Liz a moment to accept that she is awake and it is best if he leaves her alone until she gets there. 

Normally, he brings her a cup of coffee in the morning to help Liz wake up but their room has no coffee maker or complimentary breakfast. Tracing shapes and lines gently along her back, Max hums to himself while Liz stretches.

“I don’t want to leave this bed and go back to real life.” Liz places kisses along his pectoral muscles before stretching and sighing. “Reality isn’t any fun.”

Max leans down and kisses her forehead, inhaling the scent that is Liz before pausing when she giggles. “What?”

“You smell like rain. And sex. And me.” Max can feel her lips curving up into a smile against his skin. 

“We should both probably hop in the shower then, huh?” Max suggests, rolling Liz onto the psychedelic pepper floor to the sound of her giggles.

____________________

After getting dressed and ready for the day, the couple check out of the motel and follow the clerks direction to a nearby garage to fix the tire. While they wait, Liz pulls out her spreadsheet of family’s they need to visit for DNA and interviews. 

“Do you think we can fit two families in still today? We might need to add an extra day.” Liz chews on her pen thinking about the logistics. 

“We can play it by ear. We have a couple extra road days for wiggle room if we need them.” The plan had been to have collected all the samples and be back in Roswell by Tuesday so that Liz could send the samples off to be tested as soon as possible. But as long as they return by Friday, they will still be able to mail the samples that week. 

“What if he kills again before we catch him, Max?” Liz worries. The thought had been plaguing her and she felt heavy with the pressure.

“I hope he doesn’t but if he does, maybe he will get reckless and we will finally figure out who he is.” It wasn’t much of a comfort, as they both knew a serial offender wouldn’t just stop. But maybe they would get lucky and the killer would take a break long enough to catch him. 

“You’re right.” Liz nods at his assertion. 

Max slides his hand along the back of Liz’s neck, gently rubbing away the tension to comfort her. They fade into their own personal Max and Liz bubble away from the smell of motor oil and nascar posters. They show each other comfort through their touch until a throat clears and they are reminded they are not alone. 

“Mr. and Mrs. Evans? Your car is ready” calls out a young handsome mechanic, dangling their keys. 

“Oh, we’re not…” Liz starts and Max smiles, taking the keys from the man's outstretched hand.

____________________

Max pulls up to a decrepit adobe shack at the address Liz gave him and turns off the car. “This is it?” 

“I think so.” Liz double checks the Guitierez family’s address on her paper with the dangling house numbers on the home in front of them. “It says number 514.”

“Stay behind me, just in case.” Max rumbles, unclicking his seatbelt and getting out of his cruiser. Liz comes around the hood of the SUV holding his cream colored cowboy hat. Max gently takes it from her hand and plops it on his head, advancing to the home. 

Suddenly the door swings open, and a tan skinny Latino man steps out onto the porch. “We don’t speak to gordito policia.” He crosses his arms and stares down at Max from his weathered porch.

Max doesn’t know what “gordito” means, but he has some guesses. “We’re here to talk about your missing sister? Rosa?” Max shifts from foot to foot trying to get a read on the situation.

Liz comes out from behind Max and smiles tentatively at Mr. Guitierez. “My sister’s name was Rosa too. She died ten years ago.”

“Did you find Rosa?” Mr. Guitierez glances at the back of the cruiser and then back to Liz. 

“We have several unidentified remains back in Roswell and we need the DNA of a family member to compare the remains to for identification.” Liz explains.

“Your DNA will only be used for identification, you have my word. It will have no effect on your immigration status.” Max adds, heartfeltly. 

After thinking about it for a moment, Mr. Guitierez gestures for them to follow him inside his home. The house is in dire need of repairs but homely.

____________________

When they get back on the highway, Max smiles over at Liz. “What does gordito mean?”

Liz bites her lip to try to stifle a laugh. “He called you a fat cop.”

Max gasps, as if outraged. “That’s not even accurate. I’ve cut way back on my donuts.” 

“You had three chocolate donuts this morning.” Liz smirks at him. 

“I had to put back on the calories we burned last night.”

“Uh huh. If you say so.”

“Hey, I’m sorry about your sister.” Max whispers, suddenly serious. 

“Thank you. It was a long time ago. She overdosed from a toxic mix of pain medications and whatever else she could find.” A single tear rolls down Liz’s cheek and Max squeezes her hand. 

____________________

“My feet hurt” Liz pouts, rubbing the arches of her feet. The couple are settled into their nice downtown El Paso hotel room they were unable to reach the day before.

“That’s because you were in heels all day.” Max drops his suitcase on the opposite bed from where Liz is sitting and perches on the bed facing her.

“I have to because you’re so tall or I end up looking like a child next to you and no one will take me seriously.” Liz groans, massaging her sore feet. It was the uneven sand and rocks that did it. 

“Maybe you’ll grow.” Max teases her, taking her left foot into his lap to massage her arches. 

After a while, Liz starts to feel better and smiles innocently at him as her barefoot skirts up his thigh. “Speaking of growing….” 

Just as her foot skates across his erection, Max growls. “You asked for it.” He warns, dropping her foot to the floor and pouncing onto the neighboring bed to the sound of Liz’s delighted laughter.


	12. Chapter 12

Liz sighs when the bright green Welcome to Roswell sign appears at the horizon. This far away, she cannot see the UFO sucking up cows on top of the sign, but she knows it is there. 

“What?” Max asks at the sound, concerned. 

“I don’t want to go back and leave our bubble.” Liz quietly admits, watching the desert fly by in a blur outside her window. 

Max checks for traffic in his mirrors then merges onto the side of the road, coming to a rumbling dusty stop. He turns to Liz and cups her face gently with his large callused hands. “Nothing has to change, Liz. We’re just going home.” He reassures her. 

Max closes the distance between them, kissing Liz deeply. He cherishes the feeling of her pink pillowy lips on his. Hearing Liz gasp, he slips his tongue between her parted lips, caressing her tongue. When he finally pulls away, it takes Liz a few seconds to remember how to speak again.

“D-Do we have to tell everyone today? I kind of like the way we are now.” Her voice is breathless and it does things to him.

“We can wait a while to go public at work if you want to.” Max assures her.

—————————-

Liz takes the steps into the Roswell Police Department. Her profile is silhouetted against the sunset and it takes Max’s breath away. He shakes his head and tells himself to get it together, following her inside. Hearing footsteps, the sheriff looks up to see who is walking in the precinct.

“Why do you two look guilty?” Sheriff Valenti eyes the couple speculatively as they walk into the Roswell Police Department. Something about them seems different but she can’t quite place it. Detective Evans is flushed pink and Liz is walking with a rigid posture.

“Oh, uh, I spilled a coke in my cruiser.” Max shifts from foot to foot guiltily. He’s never lied to his boss before. 

“I hope you cleaned it up well, Mr. Evans because we don’t have the money in the budget to detail your cruiser because you were careless.” The Sheriff shakes her head. Max used to be notorious for spilling things in his cruiser when he was younger but he hasn’t done it in years. He must have been distracted by something. Or someone, she thinks to herself.

“I helped him clean. It’s good as new.” Liz smiles shyly at Max. Eventually, they have to come out about their relationship but that can wait a little while. “Which freezer do you want me to put these saliva samples in until I can mail them to my lab tomorrow? We should be getting the results from the first set soon.”

“Excellent! And you got samples from everyone on the list?” The sheriff asks, gesturing towards the refrigerator in the break room.

“We did. Hopefully we will get all the Jane Does identified so that we can figure out how they are all connected and who is doing this.” Liz answers, unzipping her cooler to put her rows of samples into the empty top shelf of the refrigerator.

“Oh, and Mr. Evans. You’re getting too hairy again. For Gods sake, shave.” Sheriff Valenti barks at Max, making a beard stroking gesture with her hand over her chin.

“I left my razor at home. I’ll get right in that, ma’am” Max calls out to her retreating form.

After the sheriff leaves for her office, Liz sighs. “But I like you scruffy.”

“It’ll grow right back and I won’t shave it all.” Max reassures Liz, giving her the half smile that makes her knees weak. 

“Promise?” Liz looks up at Max, promising things with her eyes that he will definitely cash in on later.

“Promise.”

—————————-

When Max comes into the Crashdown the next morning in his civies because it is his day off, Arturo greets him by raising his hands in exasperation. “Max!”

Max startles at his name as if the other man somehow knows he touched his daughter on their trip then relaxes as Arturo continues. “You’ve been eating out every day while you were on the road and you’re still a bag of bones. How does that happen?”

Max laughs heartily in relief. “Just lucky I guess. I’ve always had trouble keeping weight on. Is Liz around?” Max drawls in his deep southern accent, taking his hat off and setting it beside him on the restaurant counter. It is past the morning rush so the diner is mostly empty, except for two older men gossiping in a booth towards the front.

“Si, she’s upstairs still sleeping. I wouldn’t wake the nina up. She’s always been cranky in the morning.” Arturo shakes his head at his daughter still being asleep this late. 

“Tell me about it.” Max affirms, then his eyes widen at his insinuation. “Because I brought her coffee every morning! It wakes her up faster.” 

Arturo narrows his eyes at Max playfully and Max quickly changes the subject. “Is that Liz and Rosa?” Max asks, gesturing at a photo hanging up behind Arturo of a much younger Liz with an older girl that looks a lot like her but with a lot more eyeliner and black.

“Aye, that was the last photo taken of Liz with her sister Rosa before she passed.” Arturo confirms, his eyes growing sad as he pours Max a cup of coffee.

“I’m sorry for your loss. She was beautiful.” Max blows into his coffee to cool it off, his eyes shooting towards the stairs when he hears a noise coming from upstairs. 

Arturo chuckles at Max’s eagerness, mumbling to himself in Spanish about young love. “You hurt her, I kill you.” He threatens the younger man. He is kidding- mostly.

“If that happens, I’ll show you a good place to hide my body.” Max agrees, smiling as Liz ambles down the stairs.

As if in a trance, Liz shuffles behind the counter in her sheep pajamas with bedhead, pouring herself a cup of coffee. She pours in a healthy portion of milk and sugar before turning around. She startles when she sees Max sitting at the counter a few feet away. “Max! Have you been here long? I didn’t know we had plans.” 

“We didn’t. I just wanted to say hello and remind you about this weekend. I won’t blame you at all if you don’t want to come.” Max tries to read in Liz’s eyes if she really wanted to meet his family.

Liz’s brow furrows in confusion and Max holds his breath before she suddenly gasps, setting her coffee down in front of Max. Arturo watches them, fascinated. Liz has never acted this in sync with a man before. 

“Dinner with your family on Sunday right?” Liz remembers his sister asking her to come. 

“Yes. I’ll pick you up at six?” It is a question more than a statement. Max has never brought a woman home to family dinner before and is a little nervous.

“Ok. I’ll be ready.” Liz mentally starts running through her clothing options. 

Forgetting Arturo is watching, Max leans forward to kiss Liz goodbye before he leaves. When she throws her arms around his neck and tries to pull Max closer across the divide of the counter, Arturo clears his throat.

Max flushes and Liz rolls her eyes. “Don’t forget what we talked about, Mr. Evans.” Arturo reminds Max, chuckling to himself.

“Of course, sir. If I hurt her, you can lay me out for the buzzards.” Max drops a 20$ bill on the counter to pay his bill and winks at Liz before leaving. 

“I like him, bambina.” Arturo smiles over at Liz.

“Papi, then why did you try to scare him?” Liz huffs at her father’s antics. She has never enjoyed his overprotectiveness towards her. 

“It’s good for a man to be a little afraid of a lovely lady’s parent.”

—————————-

That night, a man coaxes a woman into his van with plans of helping her achieve a brighter future. She will never be seen alive again.


	13. Chapter 13

Liz walks in to the Wild Pony, noticing the bulletin board full of missing persons fliers on her way in. “Maria, were these all customers of yours?”

“Yes, at one point or another. A lot of drifters come through on Ranchero night.” Maria is a free spirit who runs a local bar and was Liz’s best friend growing up. Her cocoa skin pops against the yellow bohemian outfit she is wearing.

“Interesting.” Liz hmms, taking a photo of the bulletin board and sending it to Max. Some of these women look a lot like their Jane Does and were people who’s families they just interviewed.

“What’re you having?”

“Tequila of course.” Liz plops down on a barstool across from her old friend.

“How long are you in town this time?” Maria asks, pouring Liz a shot of her favorite tequila.

Liz’s phone dings, and when she sees Max’s name, she smiles to herself. “I’m thinking about staying for a while.”

“Oh?” Maria waits for Liz to go on, intrigued. Liz has run away from Roswell since her sister died a decade earlier.

“Yeah. Papi is getting older and Im working on a case here with Detective Evans.” Max texts her again telling her how he can’t wait to see her the next day and Liz flushes. 

“Is that Max? So, how long have you been sleeping together?” Maria smirks at Liz. Her old friend is acting completely twitterpated.

Liz chokes on her sip of tequila. “What?”

Maria gives her a Don’t bullshit me look. “Your partner keeps texting you and making you blush. Are y’all together now?”

“I honestly don’t know. We slept together, yes. And I’m sure he’d be in a relationship with me if I wanted him to be but it’s complicated. I just left my fiancé in Denver. Maybe I’m not ready yet. I’d rather it have never gotten serious if things go south. Then at least the worst thing I’ll have to deal with is the awkwardness of having a coworker that has seen me naked.”

Maria hms. “What if it never goes south? I like Max Evans for you. He makes your eyes twinkle and you fit perfect right under his chin like a little puzzle piece.”

Liz smiles shyly at the idea and wills herself not to immediately check her phone when it dings. “Maybe so.”

“You going to check that? Don’t leave the poor guy on read.” Maria nods at Liz’s blinking phone.

Shaking her head, Liz checks her new messages from Max. “He just wants to know what time to pick me up before meeting his family tomorrow.”

“You’ve made it to meeting his family? That’s serious!”

“Mariaaa!”

Maria holds up her hands in surrender and giggles at her friend. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do- which really isn’t much.”

—————————-

Max arrives early to pick up Liz at the Crashdown for dinner. Her father is talking to a customer and simply points upstairs when he sees Max.

After climbing the old wooden stairs up to the residence above the restaurant, Max follows the sound of music to Liz’s room. He knocks, but she can’t hear him over the beat of the song so he just walks in. Max’s jaw drops when his eyes find Liz bent over in some yoga pose in her room.

All Max’s brain can compute about the scene is her ass lifted high in the air clad only in boy short panties and a pink camisole with her hair brushing the floor. He could get used to seeing her like this. 

“You’re early.” Liz remarks, standing upright. Her make up has been done perfectly for dinner at the Evans’ and the black & red floral dress she plans on wearing is hanging on the door to the closet.

“Sorry. I was getting jittery just waiting at home.” Max knew his family would love Liz but he had never brought a woman home to meet them before and it was making him anxious. “Doing some yoga?”

Liz nods. “Had some tension to work through.”

“I see.” Max saunters across her room, taking a seat on the bright colored twin bed. “Don’t let me stop you.” Max doesn’t even bother trying to hide his smirk. 

Liz bends again, sticking her ass out just for him.”Perv.” Her voice comes from between her legs and Max has to bite his knuckle to keep from reaching out.

“Tease.” Max quickly retorts. She’s not wrong- he is being a perv right now but based on the smirk on her face and shake of her hips, she’s enjoying it. And he wants to reach out- badly. But her father is just downstairs and would neuter him if he knew the things he is thinking right now. “What did I tell you about that sass? There’s too little of you to have that much of it.” 

“Who all will I be meeting today?” Liz goes into downward dog position and smiles at the dazed expression on Max’s face. 

“What? Oh. Well, my parents will be there of course. My mom will try to make it Pinterest perfect while my dad will zone out and wait for the meal to be over so he can play golf.” Max loves his adoptive parents but they put a lot of pressure on him to be perfect. “They…”

Max forgets what he was talking about when Liz yanks her camisole over her head and tosses it at him. Walking to the closet to get dressed, she urges him to continue. “What were you saying?”

“My sister and her husband will be there. Isobel is a pain in the ass but Noah is pretty laid back. Don’t believe anything she tells you.”

“Noted.” Liz smiles at him, coming out of her closet in the black and red floral dress. It is tasteful but sexy. She checks her makeup in the mirror and looks for her brush to finish her hair. 

“And our family friend Michael will be there. It’s how we make sure he gets a home cooked meal in him every week.” When Liz turns towards him, his breath is taken away. “You look beautiful.”

“Thanks. You ready to go?” Liz grabs her purse, raising an eyebrow at Max.

—————————-

Max leans in so close after parking in front of his parents house that Liz can see three different shades of brown in his eyes. “You ready to go inside?”

“As much as I’ll ever be.” Max squeezes her hand then unbuckles his seatbelt, meeting her around the front of his SUV. Max places his hand on Liz’s lower back, guiding her towards the front door.

He takes a deep breath and opens the unlocked front door to his parents large stucco house. Everyone turns to look at the couple as they enter the house. 

“Max, this must be Liz! She’s darling!” Ann Evans hugs them each before stepping back as a man with feral curls and a wild look in his eyes enters.

“Mrs. Evans, that is a phenomenal cape.” Michael remarks cheekily, pretending to admire the older woman’s shall as he walks into the house, wild curls bouncing. 

“Thank you, Michael, but it’s a shall.” Ann corrects him. She is used to his antics and finds he behaves best when she doesn’t encourage him.

“Well, whatever it is, it’s fabulous.” Michael hands her a bottle of 3$ red wine and turns to the couple.

“Liz, this is my best friend, Michael. Don’t believe a word this hooligan says.” Max gives Michael and enthusiastic man hug, complete with back slap.

Michael farts defiantly in answer to his friend before turning on a charming smile for Liz. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Isobel flutters her lashes dramatically at Liz coming into the living room as her mother leaves. “Aw! He looks at you like he wants to hold your hand tenderly and then shove it down the front of his pants. Are y’all together now?”

Liz looks like a deer caught in the headlights. She doesn’t know how to answer that question. Nonchalantly, Max says “Yep.”

Just like that. Yep. He said it so easily, so calmly and it felt so right. The conversation carries on as if Liz’s world wasn’t just tilted on its axis.

“Max, what is going on with all these bodies showing up in Roswell?” Noah calls from the dining room where he is carefully setting the table just the way Ann likes it. 

“Maybe it is aliens.” Michael teases, going to sit at his usual spot at the table. 

“Usually the killer tries to insert himself into the investigation. He’s probably someone who is weak and unimportant but finds control in killing. The longer he gets away with it, the more he will perfect the crime. The victim preference should stay the same though.” Max answers him, sitting down at his spot at the table with Liz to his right.

“And what exactly is that preference?” Isobel asks, taking her seat across from Max. “I don’t want to end up chopped up in the desert.” Isobel shivers.

“Seriously, don’t worry about the murders, Is. You don’t seem to be his type.” Max tries to reassure his sister.

“Oh? And what is his type of not my beautiful wife?” Noah acts like he is offended so Max quickly answers him.

“Troubled minority women.” 

“We think he’s connected to Ranchero night. He’s someone that can blend in and seems harmless but tries to control things.” Liz adds helpfully. 

“There’s a guy like that at Grant Greens alien museum. You should check it out.” Noah tells them, finishing setting the table and taking his place next to his wife.

“Well, the only person at every Ranchero night is probably Maria, right?” Isobel muses, popping the cork on the expensive merlot she brought.

“It’s not Maria.” Liz cuts Isobel off sharper than she intended.

“That’s a lovely necklace, Isobel. Do you remember where you bought it from? One of our victims was missing one very similar to it.” Max eyes the red necklace curiously.

“Well that’s not creepy at all. Noah got it for me recently to thank me for hover boarding.” Isobel fingers her red crystal necklace idly.

“Where would I go to get one? It’s very pretty. Liz might need one.” Max half smiles over at Liz.

“Max, that isn’t…” Liz flushes. It has never made her comfortable when men buy her gifts. She likes to provide for herself.

“But I want to buy you nice things.” Max raises an eyebrow at her.

“I had it custom made on Etsy. I can get you the name of the shop.” Noah answers Max.

“Max, don’t talk about murder at the dinner table.” Ann chastises Max, coming to sit at the table with her husband, Dave.

“Yes mom.” Max replied, contrite. “They did ask though.”

“What is this hoverboarding work out you were talking about? It sounds fun.” Ann Evans remarks, setting down a large glass crystal bowl with enough Cob salad for an army.

Max stutters once and grips Liz’s leg under the table to keep from laughing while Isobel blinks innocently. “It’s a couples workout, but you have to book it months in advance.”

“Bae, we should try that.” Max pipes up and Liz chokes on the sip of water she just took at the nickname. 

“I’d join y’all but I can’t imagine your dad would be into that sort of thing.” Ann glances at Dave speculatively.

“So, how long will you be staying in Roswell, Liz?” Dave asks, putting a heaping helping of salad on his plate.

“I was actually thinking that I might stay. My father needs me. He is diabetic and doesn’t always take care of himself like he should. I can do my work based out of anywhere. Roswell is as good a place as any.” Liz glances at Max shyly. 

“Plus, Max is here.” Isobel adds.

“Yes, there is that too.” Liz agrees.

—————————-

The next day, Liz goes into the Roswell PD to box up her samples in a temperature controlled container and mail off her samples. On her way back from the post office, she grabs coffee for her & Max. Pulling up to the precinct, she sees commotion and caution tape everywhere. 

“Oh my god, Max what happened?” Liz asks, rushing to her lovers side.

“Somebody left a body outside the station for us.” Max answers her somberly.

Inside the caution tape is the body of a young Latina woman with a note sitting on her chest. It says “Who has the power now?”


	14. Chapter 14

Liz takes in the image of the disheveled dead woman in the caution tape. Looking up at Max, her mind immediately starts working. “She’s wearing fake nails. We’re going to want to take those to check for DNA in case she got a good scratch in on her attacker that left his DNA.”

“Copy that. Then we can check her fingerprints and see if she is in the system.” Max’s eyes sparkle like he has a secret. “You need extra caffeine today?” Max raises an eyebrow at Liz carrying a cup of coffee in each hand. 

“Oh! No. This is for you.” Liz thrusts the cup of coffee in her right hand at Max, the coffee splashing from her jerky movement. 

Max half smiles at Liz taking the beverage. She's jumpy around him at work and he finds it adorable. “Thank you.”

“I mailed off the other DNA samples to my lab. We can rush order this young ladies and hopefully get the results at the same time.” Liz rocks on her heels nervously. She feels like there is a giant “I’m sleeping with my partner” sign on her forehead even though they keep a professional boundary at work.

Noah pulls up a little while later with a box of mixed donuts from Ufohnuts. “Your sister sent you these. Wanted to remind you that she is hosting an event at Grant Greens UFO Emporium this Saturday night and she’s expecting you to go.”

“Thanks, man. I wouldn’t miss it.” Max smiles at his brother in law, taking the box of donuts. 

“Oh my god is that a real dead body?” Noah covers his mouth after looking at the body and dry heaves.

“Yup. Killer is getting bold. Hopefully he will get sloppy. Come stand on this side. It’s the smell that gets you.” Max makes a face at the thought. They don’t warn you about the smell in the police academy.

“Any clue of who it could be?” Noah asks absently, coming to stand next to Max instead of down wind. 

“We have a lot of evidence and it will lead us to the killer eventually.” Max informs him firmly. He can’t say anything more than that. 

“Well stay safe man. Liz, you look lovely today.” Noah nods at Liz and Max, leaving for his SUV.

“Have a good day.” Liz waves absently. Mentally, she’s going over the samples she needs to take and itching to go grab her lab kit. “Everyone is bringing you breakfast today.”

“As if I could eat right now. We have to catch this guy. He’s not going to stop.” Max feels helpless to stop more victims from piling up. It is an awful feeling.

“I haven’t been able to eat much either. But he’s going to mess up and leave DNA we can trace eventually. And then he will never kill again.” 

“Do you have a date for the UFO Emporium thing?” Max blurts suddenly, thinking about what Noah said.

“What?” Liz is thrown by the change in topic.

“The fundraiser at the UFO Emporium. My sister will skin me alive if I don’t go.” Max smiles shyly at Liz through his dark bangs.

“I wasn’t planning on going to be honest. Papi has a grudge with Grant Green and I’m on his side.”

“Don’t make me go alone.” Max begs, wrinkling his brow and giving her sad, brown eyes. 

“Fine. But we stay professional in public.” Liz raises an eyebrow at him in challenge and he touches her lower back in reply as he passes her to get to work. 

——————————

Liz smoothes her powder blue off shoulder dress before walking into Grant Green’s UFO Emporium. It was the annual Ranchero Night fundraiser to help pay legal fees for illegal immigrants facing deportation and a handful of protesters carrying derogatory signs were gathered outside. Liz squares her shoulders and holds her head high as she walks through the crowd of protesters.

When she enters the UFO Emporium, the first person she sees is a frazzled Isobel. “Oh! Liz, hi. Half of my volunteers didn’t show up and things are crazy. My brother is around here somewhere, I think.”

“I’m sure I’ll find him eventually. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“There’s a box of decorations in the storage room in the back I need. I sent Noah to get them an hour ago but he got distracted talking to one of his clients.” Isobel shakes her head at her husband talking away to a young woman across the room.

“I’ll go get it.” Liz smiles at Isobel reassuringly and heads in the direction behind the stage where she pointed. 

Liz manages to find the storage closet and steps inside, flicking on the light. It’s full of alien themed decorations, plates, cups, table cloths and large inflated aliens in all sorts of colors. Liz walks in further, reaching for the box with Isobel’s neat handwriting when the door slams behind her. Liz jumps at the slam and turns to open the door but it is stuck or something. She jiggles the door handle and finds that it is locked. Furrowing her brows, she rattles the doorknob and knocks on the door a few times. She’s stuck in there.

Liz bangs the door a few times, calling out, but no one could possibly hear her over the music blaring through the space. Huffing, Liz turns staring at the boxes of decorations like they have the answer. She pulls her phone out from where she stashed it in her cleavage for the evening to call Max for help but there is no signal. Liz pounds on the door a few more times and yells, but it is no use. She is stuck. 

Stacking a few boxes, she climbs on top of them moving her phone around to search for a signal to no avail. Liz takes a deep breath and tries to distract herself with Isobels box of decorations but she really doesn’t like the tight feeling she has in her chest. Liz isn’t claustrophobic but she doesn’t know how long she will be locked in the closet. Max is going to think she blew him off and it will upset him. 

Liz pounds on the door again, calling out a little louder and more frantic. She is just about to give up when the door suddenly swings open and she falls backwards into a box of inflatable blue aliens. A scream escapes her in surprise and she flails as two large arms reach down towards her. They curl around her waist and pull her up. When the musky rain scented cologne hits her nose, Liz relaxes. Max. 

Max helps her to her feet, his hands lingering around her waist. “You ok? Isobel sent me to get a box then I heard yelling.”

“The door must have gotten stuck.” Liz stares up into Max’s eyes gratefully. He’s wearing a black suit and his usual windswept hair is smoothed with some sort of product. 

“You look… wow.” Max takes in Liz’s outfit, from her silver heels to her form fitting grey blue dress to her wavy hair and crimson lips. Liz flushes at his heated gaze, her pulse picking up. Max leans down and kisses her gently hello. 

“I was worried you’d think I blew you off.” Liz admits shyly, snuggling into his warm chest.

“Only for a moment. I knew you’d come.” Max kisses her hair and rubs her back reassuringly. 

Liz has run on him once before and the chances of her doing it again are high. She always leaves before the other person can leave her so why is she thinking about settling in a town like Roswell? “Max?”

“Hm?” He hums against her hair.

“Someday, I might run again. My mom was a runner, and now well, I guess I’m a runner. And I don’t want to run from you.”

Max pulls back and looks deep into her eyes so his meaning is clear. “I’ll follow you anywhere. You’re my partner. I’ll use the find my friend app and follow you until the ends of the earth.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. Hey Liz?” A question about Liz’s past had been plaguing him and now was as good a time to ask as any.

“Mm?”

“Who were you running from when I met you?” 

Liz shifts uncomfortably thinking about her ex fiance, Diego. “I left my ex fiance in   
Denver a week before I met you.” Liz blurts, dropping the truth in between them. 

Max schools his features and clears his throat. “Why?”

“We were taking Save the Date photos that week and he lost his temper. I thought that if I went through with it, I’d be covering up bruises for the rest of my life. And so I changed my number and bolted.” 

Max stiffens at the idea of anybody touching his love. “Was he always like that?”

“No. At first he was ridiculously perfect. And then he became controlling. Actually hitting me was the last straw. He wasn’t who I thought he was.” It was a seemingly normal relationship and everything she had been raised to believe she wanted until it wasn’t. The change was gradual until one day she looked around and realized she wasn’t happy.

“What’s his name.” Max growls thinking about how quickly he can call up a friend in Denver and get that slimeball in jail. 

“Max, it’s ok. It’s taken care of.” Liz tries to reassure him.

“Name?” Max’s jaw tics.

“Diego. Don’t do anything, please.” Liz whispers.

“Last name?” Max growls.

“Max.” Liz warns him.

“But…” Max needs to do something. Or hit something. 

“Promise me you’ll leave it be.” Liz begs, looking up at him beseechingly with her eyes. 

Max huffs and looks away, gathering himself. “I promise. What did Isobel send you in here for? I’ll help.”

“There’s this box and a box way up there there that I can’t reach.” Liz gestures at the two boxes with neat flowy handwriting on them. 

Max easily grabs the box at the top of the stack and puts it on top of the other box, carrying them easily out. His mind is churning but he is excited to spend the evening with Liz dancing and hopefully, will be tucking her into his bed later that night.


End file.
